SPARUS II AUV Turbot: 10 years in operation at sea

In this article we want to summarize the last 10 years of history at the Systems, Robotics and Vision research lab (SRV) at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), always linked to their SPARUS II AUV platform named Turbot. We’ve interviewed former members of the team as well as the current generation of researchers at SRV to understand what was the impact of acquiring an AUV platform for testing technologies in their everyday research and to understand their future goals.

Back in 2014, the team at the SRV was working on its research projects on underwater vision and robotics using a tailor made remotely operated vehicle, the Fugu ROV. It was a small ROV with a small lithium battery, a pressure sensor and a couple of stereo cams pointing to the front and below, in the times when small ROV affordable platforms were not a reality yet. With four small thrusters, they were able to move the vehicle up and down and gather datasets that, unfortunately, were not always ideal to work with.

The Fugu ROV helped the team to develop new technologies, starting with a ROS based architecture and visual odometry algorithms. In parallel, a vision payload was developed for the Fugu, the Fugu-flex, that was then integrated into Nessie AUV (from Heriot Watt University) and Girona 500 AUV (from University of Girona) in the framework of the EU funded project TRIDENT.

Image 1. UIB-SRV team presenting Fugu ROV at Palma Aquarium (2012). © University of the Balearic Islands.

Fugu ROV was soon too limited for a growing team of researchers that was eager to evolve in its work. M. Massot, former researcher of the SRV, remembers that times “we needed to look for a bigger autonomous vehicle, with DVL, that could handle our camera systems and with a ROS based architecture; the idea was to be able to keep the same research lines that we were working in and not having to reinvent the developed technology so far. Gabriel Oliver (the head of the research lab) introduced the idea of the SPARUS II AUV platform and, fortunately, he managed to find the funding to acquire it!”.

Image 2. SPARUS II AUV Turbot in its first missions (2016). © University of the Balearic Islands

The arrival of the SPARUS II AUV Turbot (named after the flatfish in Catalan language) changed the lab’s everyday dynamics; having a testing AUV that allowed gathering longer datasets and the technical support of the manufacturing team, helped the SRV to focus on their research. “Buying an operative platform and not having to be worried about waypoint following, navigation, reliable control, having USBL communication solved,… helped us to focus and advance faster in the technologies we were working on”, Massot remembers.

The first vehicle that the UIB acquired was a platform equipped with a DVL from Teledyne Marine and an acoustic modem with USBL from Evologics. On top of that, it was the SRV team who built up multiple payloads using different camera systems and also used the platform as a basis to evolve in their vehicle’s ROS based achitecture. In the years of Turbot at the lab, 4 PhD theses have been defended and more than 70 articles have been published in relation to the technologies that have been tested in the SPARUS II AUV.

“I started working at SRV when they had recently purchased the Turbot. I actually joined the lab because they had an AUV where I could work hands-on and I felt that being part of that team would help me to grow professionally. Research work made us do it all together as a complementary team, the flexibility of the platform and the possibility to further build up on the work carried out, was a continuous stimulation towards testing new things. The AUV made sense and, for the first time, we could generate useful data for third parties” points out E. Guerrero, former SRV member.

Image 3. SRV team operating SPARUS II AUV Turbot from the harbor (2018). © University of the Balearic Islands

F. Bonin, associate professor at the UIB, explains: “Currently, in the framework of collaborative research projects, the team is working in two main research lines: industrial applications and biological applications. In the first one, we are using the AUV for intervention in underwater infrastructure whereas in the second one we are using the AUV to gather data from the seafloor with the aim of post-processing it online and offline to extract information of the interest for the biologists. We aim to follow these research lines and keep collaborating with multiple institutions, since we see that this is the best way to grow in areas that we can contribute widely.” To that end, the SRV team has decided to purchase a new SPARUS II AUV unit, equipped with multiple sensors, in order to amplify the kind of work carried out with different kinds of data.

Recently, the UIB team decided to buy a new SPARUS II AUV unit for various reasons, she will be called ORAT (sea bream in Mallorca Catalan dialect). “We’ve been working with the SPARUS II Turbot and the experience has been very satisfying; it’s a vehicle that covers our needs both in research and in some applications for data gathering for the scientific community. The model covered our technical needs and IQUA robotics was the best candidate we had. ORAT will complement TURBOT. The first one will be devoted exclusively to data gathering to work on our post processing capabilities and also for working in cooperation with other vehicles. The latter one will be used for research that imply physical modifications of the AUV ” says Gabriel Oliver, Professor at the UIB and research lead at the SRV lab.

The new SPARUS II AUV ORAT, the first unit of a new upgraded generation of SPARUS, will have an enhanced navigation system integrating the Phins C3 Exail INS and a fully capable all-in-one payload that will contain a Norbit multibeam echosounder, a Marine Sonic side scan sonar and an IQUA Robotics developed camera system. “The incorporation of such technologies shall significantly increase the capabilities of the lab for participating in new projects. We will have more robust navigation and more precise sensors, giving to the vehicle more versatility and feasibility when gathering seafloor data” confirms G. Oliver.

Alongside with the new AUV, the UIB has acquired an autonomous surface vehicle of the brand Maritime Robotics that will provide further capabilities to the facilities at the UIB.

A few months ago, the current SRV team gathered in Palma de Mallorca (Spain) at the Martech workshop where they symbolically celebrated the 10 years of their youngest lab member who brought them a change of paradigm when most needed back in 2014 and who has opened doors that they would not had imagined when they started their research activity. Happy birthday Turbot!

Image 4. Current members of the SRV group at Martech 2024. © IQUA robotics

You can follow the activity of the group, TURBOT and ORAT at http://srv.uib.es

This article has been possible thanks to the collaboration of:

Gabriel Oliver

Full professor at University of the Balearic Islands

Francesc Bonin

Associate professor at University of the Balearic Islands

PhD“An Inverse-Perspective-based Approach to Monocular Mobile Robot Navigation”

Èric Guerrero

AI researcher at Ocean Infinity

Part-time professor at the University of the Balearic Islands

Former PhD student at the University of the Balearic Islands

PhD “Data-Driven Exploration of Benthic Environments with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles featuring Semantic Perception and Adaptive Navigation Intelligence”

Miquel Massot

Control Systems Engineer at Ocean Infinity

Former PhD student at the University of the Balearic Islands

PhD – “New insights on laser-based structured light for underwater 3D reconstruction”

Pep Lluís Negre

Software engineer at ROVCO

Former PhD student at the University of the Balearic Islands