DUNE has managed several projects in the field of robotics and industrial control.
Most projects have been realized in cooperation with Italian and EU Research Agencies.
Surface Robot (RAS Project)
It is a surface robotic system designed to detect and classify ice in Antarctica using GPS and inertial data, analogical and digital radio-communicatons for remote commands and television image transmission and millimeter wave radar for obstacle avoidance.
DUNE has defined and developed in-house the millimeter wave radar on DSP commercial boards and the processing algorithms for data management and fusion .
Remote Guidance System (RAS Project)
DUNE has developed a remote guidance system for a vehicle designed for the Antarctica site cruising on rough and ice-scattered landscapes.
The remote guidance system allows the user to remote guide the vehicle via radio-communications when available but it also allows the vehicle to follow pre-programmed tracks and avoid obstacles without direct operator intervention.
The guidance system has been realized on a VME rack with 3 Motorola 6100 (PPC) boards under VxWorks O.S.
Submarine Robot (SARA Project)
It is a submarine robotic system designed to explore the Antarctic sea. DUNE has designed and developed remote sensing sub-systems and navigation algorithms (look-ahead sonar for surveillance and obstacle avoidance, inertial and Doppler unit integration, sea current Doppler gauge, data fusion).
Heating Laser Head Control System
European Commission, BRITE Program The control system has been designed to drive a heating laser head used to weld steel sheets.
DUNE has designed and developed the algorithms to process the images from a thermal camera (extraction of the scene main features ) and to setup and track and the welding profile along steel sheets.
Steel Sheet Bending Control System
European Commission, EUREKA/FASP Project The control system has been designed to drive the laser steering and welding on large steel plates used in ship building in order to reach the desired bending without cutting them.
DUNE has designed and developed real-time processing architecture and algorithms to plan the welding and shrinking phases and to control the actuators for the heating laser head steering.
The system migration and upgrading on a new environment including 1 Thales board (2 PPC processors) and 1 Mango board equipped with Hammerhead DSP has been also performed.