9311269 Orin The Department of Electrical Engineering at The Ohio State University will purchase a High Performance Graphics Platform which will be dedicated to support research in engineering. The equipment will be used for several research projects; each project addresses a critical problem associated with unmanned underwater robotic systems. Interest in underwater robotics is growing because of its potential for use in a range of applications, including ecological studies, salvage operations, geophysical exploration, rescue and recovery operations, and maintenance and repair of man-made underwater structures. In particular the supported projects focus on issues related to the simulation, control and monitoring of underwater robotics in hazardous and unstructured environments. The primary projects are: 1) real-time dynamic simulation of an unmanned underwater vehicle and manipulator system and its associated controller, 2) real-time dynamic simulation of an underwater walking vehicle, 3) dynamic simulation and neural control of enveloping power grasps, and 4) real-time display of video data compressed using a technique which employs artificial neural networks.
