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6 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE
WORK
Multi-robot systems have a great inherent potential in
various applications requiring localization and navi-
gation capabilities. In this paper, we have shortly
introduced a multi-robot system suitable for opera-
tions in the shallow water conditions near the coast-
line. The main contribution of this paper is the valida-
tion of our implementation of a localization algorithm
in these demanding conditions. The obtained results,
which are drawn from extensive simulations based
on real case scenarios and environmental data, have
proved the validity and effectiveness of our approach
for the localization of these intelligent autonomous
profiling floats.
However, there is much more yet to be explored in
terms of our research. We will briefly introduce a bet-
ter underwater communication channel modeling, in
particular for the layered Baltic sea case. Further tests
scenarios with different surfacing intervals, acoustic
communication intervals and dynamic mission plan-
ning will be conducted. Later research will also
include optimization between communication band-
width, energy and reliability, data compression in data
communication and other filtering algorithms. Real
world robotic tests with renewed four unit system will
be started in summer 2010 and they will further guide
the future research.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank the Academy of Finland for
funding the Finnish Center of Excellence in Generic
Intelligent Machines (GIM), the SWARM consor-
tium, Jorma Selk¨ainaho, Janne Paanaj¨arvi , Sami
Terho from GIM, and Antti Westerlund (Finnish Me-
teorological Institute).
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LOCALIZATION IN AN AUTONOMOUS UNDERWATER MULTI-ROBOT SYSTEM DESIGNED FOR COASTAL
AREA MONITORING
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