Exploring the Deep With SONIA (TS-1990)

It's always exciting to see the various ways in which Java technologies are being used within the world of robotics, and this year's Conference features SONIA, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). SONIA, which has embedded computers, as well as sensors and actuators to take care of underwater tasks, is a robot submarine programmed to accomplish a series of operations on its own. AUVs are used in field applications such as underwater mine clearance, topographic mapping, shipwreck search, and dam and pipeline inspections, among others.

SONIA was built and programmed entirely by volunteers, undergraduate students from the École de Technologie Supérieure, in Montreal, Quebec. Funding was minimal, so the team had to be extra creative in the architecting of this machine. In addition, because not all the team members live and work in the same area, they had to set up software systems to keep them in touch with each other and with SONIA.

You can see SONIA submerged in water, and in action, on the JavaOne Pavilion floor. The AUV is about the size of a microwave oven, and it carries a number of sensors and thrusters for underwater movement. Of course, "her" eyes are in the form of a camera. For navigation, and to reduce the number of electronic gadgets, the SONIA team merged the electrical management, compass, gyroscope, pressure, and temperature sensors into a single navigational board.

But most Conference participants are primarily interested in the software used to run SONIA, to do test simulations, and to keep the team posted on any problems she has. The applications used with SONIA were written in C and C++, but the team has now switched to Java technology because, team members say, "it is the prime choice for robotics." Use of Java technologies has improved the team's results.

With the exception of the vision system, every SONIA software component is developed using Java technology, which provides portability, efficiency, and a broad selection of open APIs. The team used open-source development tools and took advantage of the fact that the Java platform is well-known to undergraduates at the university.

SONIA's software consists of a control-mission system named AUV4 and a separate vision subsystem. A series of tools was built around the main components for convenience and debugging purposes. AUV4 was designed to be the core system. Additional components include a telemetry console, a simulator, and a communication service.

For debugging and configuration purposes and for improved communication between the telemetric interface and AUV4, the SONIA team implemented a Java Management Extensions (JMX) communications system. JMX technology provides an API for managing and monitoring remote applications using a transparent network remote procedure call (RPC) scheme. This scheme communicates over a standard TCP/IP network and allows the team to access distant objects as if they were local. The team monitors the entire system without having to worry about how data gets transferred. In addition, a telemetric interface was designed to enable the operator to configure every aspect of AUV4 on the fly.

Because the SONIA team does not have common access to a swimming pool, team members had to find another way to test various aspects of AUV4 without actually submerging it in water. They designed a simulator that builds an artificial environment, a virtual world of sorts, using Java 3D technology. This framework simulates the AUV moving through water and mimics all parts of the electronics.

Lastly, SONIA's client interfaces use Swing and QuickTime for Java technology.

Near the end of their Wednesday afternoon presentation, Martin Morissette and Félix Pageau of the SONIA AUV team showed a demo that began with some video of SONIA moving through the water, then showed the simulation program and the client software with a graph viewer.

Each year, the SONIA team takes part in an international competition. Over the past years, the team has collaborated with local and national industrial groups in order to develop new prototypes that promote the use of their partners' technologies.

In addition, the team incorporates open-source software and tools, a Subversion or SVN versioning system, Trac for project management and bug tracking, and a wiki for content management. Some of the team members working on the development are in locations as distant from each other as Menlo Park, California; Boston, Massachusetts; and the Netherlands.

SONIA is on display on the Pavilion floor, so be sure to stop by to check her out and talk to some of her creators. SONIA AUV team members Morissette and Pageau will repeat their presentation, TS-1990, on Friday, May 11, from 2:50 to 3:50 p.m. in Esplanade 305.