UIB team’s activities were quite bread. They continued with the development and integration of the different processes aiming at the implementation of the first stage of a BUGWRIGHT2 inspection mission. This first stage aims at building the localization framework for the rest of robots and providing a first set of inspection data (comprising flight log, images, point clouds and mesh, including the positioning information for the data collected and the corresponding processing results; all this data are available for the rest of robots). During this first stage, the inspection-oriented drone developed by the UIB operates as a standalone platform and flies in front of the structure to inspect, collecting in a fully autonomous, systematic way the inspection data. A number of processes run next in the drone ground station, in order to: (1) build the localization framework [methodology developed by the Univ. of Klagenfurt team], (2) build a mesh (to be used by the rest of robots along the BW2 inspection pipeline) and (3) detect defects in the images collected.

As part of these developments and integration efforts, a number of tests were performed on the outer hull of a real vessel for checking the suitability of the processes that lead to the generation of the localization framework [developed by the Univ. of Klagenfurt team]. The localization framework is based on visual markers (ARUCO tags) and an Ultra-Wide Band network. The rest of robots involved in a BW2 inspection mission make use of the resulting calibration to plan their motion and conclude the inspection at a more detailed level. Continuing with the developments and integration efforts, a number of tests were performed for checking the suitability of the processes leading to building the mesh of the outer hull of the vessel. The mesh, apart from being an output of an inspection mission, is intended to be useful for the rest of the robots of the inspection pipeline, as input for their motion planning modules.

Several experiments on defect detection were also conducted for the different flights performed, by processing the images collected. The output of this step comprises several files, including the images resulting from the processing, among which there is a file that indicates where the defects are suspected to be. This information can be used for planning the motion of the different robotic platforms in the second stage of a BW2 inspection mission. Part of the development/integration of the different elements involved in the first stage of the BW2 inspection pipeline took place in Porto and Lisbon, but it is intended to be continued/completed in the UIB laboratory along the next months, to be tested during the next integration meeting.