Publications

The goal of this LDRD was to demonstrate the use of robotic vehicles for deploying and autonomously reconfiguring seismic and acoustic sensor arrays with high (centimeter) accuracy to obtain enhancement of our capability to locate and characterize remote targets. The capability to accurately place sensors and then retrieve and reconfigure them allows sensors to be placed in phased arrays in an initial monitoring configuration and then to be reconfigured in an array tuned to the specific frequencies and directions of the selected target. This report reviews the findings and accomplishments achieved during this three-year project. This project successfully demonstrated autonomous deployment and retrieval of a payload package with an accuracy of a few centimeters using differential global positioning system (GPS) signals. It developed an autonomous, multisensor, temporally aligned, radio-frequency communication and signal processing capability, and an array optimization algorithm, which was implemented on a digital signal processor (DSP). Additionally, the project converted the existing single-threaded, monolithic robotic vehicle control code into a multi-threaded, modular control architecture that enhances the reuse of control code in future projects.

This report covers research done as part of US Department of Energy contract DE-PS26-99FT14299 with the Fuel Cell Propulsion Institute on the fuel cell RATLER{trademark} vehicle, Lurch, as well as work done on the fuel cells designed for the vehicle. All work contained within this report was conducted at the Robotic Vehicle Range at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque New Mexico. The research conducted includes characterization of the duty cycle of the robotic vehicle. This covers characterization of its various abilities such as hill climbing and descending, spin-turns, and driving on level ground. This was accomplished with the use of current sensors placed in the vehicle in conjunction with a Data Acquisition System (DAS), which was also created at Sandia Labs. Characterization of the two fuel cells was accomplished using various measuring instruments and techniques that will be discussed later in the report. A Statement of Work for this effort is included in Appendix A. This effort was able to complete characterization of vehicle duty cycle elements using battery power, but problems with the fuel cell control systems prevented completion of the characterization of the fuel cell operation on the benchtop and in the vehicle. Some data was obtained characterizing the fuel cell current-voltage performance and thermal rise rate by bypassing elements of the control system.