Crews of researchers might stay at sea for extended periods deploying and running marine sensing systems. MIT Sea Grants 16-foot Wave Amplitude Modulation Vessel will deploy them autonomously. It depends entirely on GPS to localize itself and known obstacles. The nearby Charles River Basin is used for recreation. Bridges along the river block GPS signals. Localization despite GPS failure is necessary for safe operation. Mapping methods using LiDAR and cameras, sensors available to our boat, are well studied. We will build a map using a particle filter fed by both LiDAR data and odometry calculated from vision data.

As member of the first-place 2014 RobotX Maritime Challenge team and of the MIT LAMSS group, I became intimately familiar with our 16 robot catamaran and its subsystems, particularly the lidar. Im excited to finally contribute to a robot that will contribute to humanity by autonomously deploying itself and gathering oceanographic data! More than anything, I hope to learn what it means to make meaningful research.