Daniel J F Toal

University of Limerick | UL · Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

The use of underwater vehicle manipulator systems (UVMS) equipped with cameras has gained significant attention due to their capacity to perform underwater tasks autonomously. However, controlling both the manipulator and the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) based on the vision system information is not an easy task, especially in situations where t...

This article presents a simulated and experimental analysis of the effects of the evaporation duct on microwave propagation in the Irish Sea. The evaporation duct is a phenomenon that occurs almost permanently over all the world’s oceans and allows electromagnetic waves to travel beyond the horizon. Weather data logged over several years from four...

This paper is an overview to Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (V-SLAM). We discuss the basic definitions in the SLAM and vision system fields and provide a review of the state-of-the-art methods utilized for mobile robot’s vision and SLAM. This paper covers topics from the basic SLAM methods, vision sensors, machine vision algorithms fo...

One of the most important key points in the intelligent transportation systems is scene understanding of the known and unknown surrounding environment to achieve a safe driving for smart mobile robots and cars. Semantic segmentation can address most of the perception needs of mobile robots and Intelligent Vehicles (IV). There are several deep learn...

Airborne wind energy is a new approach to reach the stronger and more consistent winds at higher altitudes. In this paper, the interconnection of pumping mode airborne wind energy systems inside an energy farm is investigated. An experimental rig hardware setup has been designed and built to model an AWE farm in small scale. A direct interconnectio...

Industry 4.0 uses the analysis of real-time data, artificial intelligence, automation, and the interconnection of components of the production lines to improve manufacturing efficiency and quality. Manufacturing Execution Systems (MESs) and Autonomous Intelligent Vehicles (AIVs) are key elements of Industry 4.0 implementations. An MES connects, mon...

Feature extraction and matching is a key component in image stitching and a critical step in advancing image reconstructions, machine vision and robotic perception algorithms. This paper presents a fast and robust underwater image mosaicking system based on (2D)2PCA and A-KAZE key-points extraction and optimal seam-line methods. The system utilizes...

The overall control system for an open-frame Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) is typically built from three subsystems: guidance, navigation and control (GNC). The control allocation plays a vital role in the control subsystem. Typically, open-frame underwater vehicles have p actuators (thrusters) for the motion in the horizontal plane, and the cont...

This paper presents a docking station heave motion prediction method for dynamic remotely operated vehicle (ROV) docking, based on the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). Due to the limited power onboard the subsea vehicle, high hydrodynamic drag forces, and inertia, work-class ROVs are often unable to match the heave motion of a docking...

In recent years, we have seen significant interest in the use of permanently deployed resident robotic vehicles for commercial inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR) activities. This paper presents a concept and demonstration, through offshore trials, of a low-cost, low-maintenance, navigational marker that can eliminate drift in vehicle INS solu...

This paper presents autonomous docking of an industry standard work-class ROV to both static and dynamic docking station (Tether Management System — TMS) using visual based pose estimation techniques. This is the first time autonomous docking to a dynamic docking station has been presented. Furthermore, the presented system does not require a speci...

As companies begin to move towards Industry 4.0 and implement Smart Manufacturing techniques, flexible manufacturing comes to the fore. This allows a facility to adapt to changing needs and demands, with less impact on production, when compared to rigid production lines. Traditionally, the introduction of new equipment into a production line is som...

The use of filters for image processing has long existed and is well established within industrial practice and in academia. The widespread adoption of machine learning into industrial spaces, however, has presented opportunities for the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence applications to be further developed and researched in relat...

Digital image processing (DIP) is carried out to produce an altered image that is more suitable for the intended application. Image filtering and image warping are considered to be the most common methods of image processing. Within image filtering, these operations are carried out to aid the altering or enhancing an image to either remove specific...

With the growth of the internet of things (IoT), many challenges like information security and privacy, interoperability/standard, and regulatory and legal issues are arising. This work focused on the information security issue, which is one of the primary challenges faced by connected systems that needs to be resolved without impairing system beha...

Process automation has become a norm within industry with cheap and easily accessible automation technology becoming a standard option available to manufacturing firms. However, without the implementation of flexibility in manufacturing by the employment of intelligent systems, the technology will be limited in application. The development of smart...

Within the manufacturing industry, predictive maintenance is a well-established concept, dating back to the 1990s [1]. Practice has shown it to have a proven track record of minimising unnecessary machine downtime. The methods of predictive maintenance have varied widely, including visual inspection (i.e. human monitoring), thermal imaging, ultraso...

Within the manufacturing industry, predictive maintenance is a well-established concept, dating back to the 1990's [1]. Practice has shown it to have a proven track record of minimising unnecessary machine downtime. The methods of predictive maintenance have varied widely, including visual inspection (i.e. human monitoring), thermal imaging, ultras...

This paper extends underwater SONAR simulation from laboratory prototype to real-world demonstrator. It presents the interdisciplinary methodology to advance the state of the art from level four to level seven on the technology readiness level (TRL) standard scale for measuring the maturity of innovations. While SONAR simulation offers the potentia...

In the modern shift toward digitization of all industries, there is significant difficulty in establishing what steps need to be undertaken to implement industry 4.0. This paper examines the most common pillars acknowledged as the areas needing immediate investment and research for the execution of Industry 4.0 from a manufacturing perspective, whi...

Fault-tolerant control system for marine robots, developed by researchers at Centre for Robotics & Intelligent Systems (CRIS), University of Limerick, utilises the hybrid method for control allocation, based on the integration of the pseudoinverse and the fixed-point iteration method. The algorithm is implemented as a two-step process. In the first...

Process automation has become a norm within industry with cheap and easily accessible automation technology becoming a standard option available to manufacturing firms. However, without the implementation of flexibility in manufacturing by the employment of intelligent systems, the technology will be limited in application. The development of smart...

Within the manufacturing industry, predictive maintenance is a well-established concept, dating back to the 1990‘s [1]. Practice has shown it to have a proven track record of minimising unnecessary machine downtime. The methods of predictive maintenance have varied widely, including visual inspection (i.e. human monitoring), thermal imaging, ultras...

Walking through any trade show or expo of 2018 it becomes obvious that 3D scanners have become the latest available in an arsenal of new technology being offered at an industrial level. Multiple technologies are implemented to achieve the task of 3D imaging from the real world. This paper focuses specifically on stereo vision sensing. A review of e...

Many current and future applications of underwater robotics require real-time sensing and interpretation of the environment. As the vast majority of robots are equipped with cameras, computer vision is playing an increasingly important role it this field. This paper presents the implementation and experimental results of underwater StereoFusion, an...

In this paper, an offshore airborne wind energy (AWE) farm consisting of three non-reversing pumping mode AWE systems is modelled and simulated. The AWE systems employ permanent magnet synchronous generators (PMSG). A direct interconnection technique is developed and implemented for AWE systems. This method is a new approach invented for interconne...

While ever higher resolution temperature sensing is of demand in research and industry, the cost of sensors in the sub-milli-Kelvin (mK) range can be restrictive. Furthermore, as the majority of commercial temperature sensor measurements are transmitted via electrical circuits, significant post-processing is required to obtain a high-resolution due...

The LabVIEW FPGA platform is based on graphical programming approach, which makes easy the FPGA programming and the I/O interfacing. The LabVIEW FPGA significantly improves the design productivity and helps to reduce the time to market. On the other hand, traditional FPGA platform is helpful to get an efficient/optimized design by providing control...

In this paper, an offshore airborne wind energy (AWE) farm consisting of three non-reversing pumping mode AWE systems is modelled and simulated. The AWE systems employ permanent magnet synchronous generators (PMSG). A direct interconnection technique is developed and implemented for AWE systems. This method is a new approach invented for interconne...

Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) installations offshore will have significant challenges for operation, inspection, repair, maintenance and intervention activities beyond those for onshore renewable energy farms. To minimise operating expenses (opex) MRE installations must rely on remote monitoring and control (remote presence) with limited human inte...

The measurement of the motion of a small-scale wave energy device during wave tank tests is important for the evaluation of its response to waves and the assessment of power production. Usually, the motion of a small-scale wave energy converter (WEC) is measured using an optical motion tracking system with high precision and sampling rate. However,...

This paper describes the state-of-the art in the area of underwater robot manipulator systems. A brief introduction is given on the use of manipulators in various offshore industries for different subsea intervention applications. It provides a comprehensive summary of existing commercial and prototype underwater manipulators, covering relevant asp...

Direct interconnection is a novel technique for interconnecting offshore airborne wind energy (AWE) generators which facilitates the removal of power converters from the offshore generation site. In this technique, unlike the conventional approach, all generators are interconnected directly and after dispatching the generated power to shore, a back...

In this paper, a small offshore airborne wind energy (AWE) farm consisting of three non-reversing pumping mode AWE systems is modelled and simulated. The AWE systems are interconnected using the direct interconnection technique. The quality of the generated power is analysed and investigated. Power control strategies are implemented and results dis...

The IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) is used to secure the IP traffic. The IPSec protocol was designed to fulfill the need to provide security at the network level, so that all the higher-layer protocols in the OSI model could take advantage of it. There are two main IPSec protocols, AH (Authentication Header) and ESP (Encapsulation Security Payl...

This paper describes a novel thruster fault-tolerant control system (FTC) for open-frame remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). The proposed FTC consists of two subsystems: a model-free thruster fault detection and isolation subsystem (FDI) and a fault accommodation subsystem (FA). The FDI subsystem employs fault detection units (FDUs), associated with...

Work-class ROVs equipped with robotic manipulators are extensively used for subsea intervention operations. Manipulators are teleoperated by human pilots relying on visual feedback from the worksite. Operating in a remote environment, with limited pilot perception and poor visibility, manipulator collisions which may cause significant damage are li...

ROVs with hydraulic manipulators are extensively used for subsea intervention. With camera feedback from the scene, manipulators are teleoperated and slaved to pilot held master arms. While standard for offshore oil and gas, for challenging applications in waves or currents a new approach is required. We present development of robot arm visual serv...

This paper describes a novel thruster fault-tolerant control system (FTC) for open-frame remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). The proposed FTC consists of two subsystems: a model-free thruster fault detection and isolation subsystem (FDI) and a fault accommodation subsystem (FA). The FDI subsystem employs fault detection units (FDUs), associated with...

The work presented here describes a Bump-In-The-Wire (BITW) security solution for the provision of secure communications for a Marine ROV Control Application. The targeted marine application involves controlling a ‘Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV)’ from a remote control station through standard Internet. A BITW solution is required as communication...

Inspection, repair, and maintenance operations are of crucial importance for the safety and survival of marine renewable energy devices. Current ROV manipulator technology used for subsea operations in offshore oil and gas industry is not adequate for offshore renewables. Target devices for inspection and monitoring operations in oil and gas are cl...

Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) is a new approach to harvest stronger wind streams at higher altitudes for renewable energy. This paper reviews recent developments in this field. Conventional wind energy and current constrains for its development are discussed and airborne wind energy as an appropriate solution in the literature is reviewed. Different A...

Data integrity is a term used when referring to the accuracy and reliability of data. It ensures that data is identically maintained during any operation, such as transfer, storage, or retrieval. Any changes to data, for example malicious intention, unpredicted hardware failure or human error would results in failure of data integrity. Cryptographi...

There has been a significant increase in the implementation of wireless sensor networks(WSNs) in different disciplines, including the monitoring of maritime environments,healthcare systems and industrial sectors. WSNs must regulate different sorts of datatransmission such as routing protocols and secure key management protocols. An effi-cient WSNs’...

URL: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1VLGY3IC9cvNXR The Internet of Things (IoT) has been expanding in recent years with advancements in technologies, techniques and devices. This expansion has led to several different applications in the medical, civil, marine, military and domestic domains. Each of these domains have different requirements and ch...

Oceanic conditions play an important role in determining the effects of climate change and these effects can be monitored through the changes in the physical properties of sea water. In fact, Oceanographers use various probes for measuring the properties within the water column. CTDs (Conductivity, Temperature and Depth) provide profiles of physica...

Maritime environmental monitoring based on wireless sensor networks is a challenging area of research due to the characteristics of the water environment. Thus, there are certain designing considerations must be taken into account, for instance, network architecture, remote sensor data management and security of data transmission. The system must h...

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are a growing field with applications in different areas that include the Medical industry. Each application raises different concerns, challenges, and requirements. This paper looks at a Cluster in a Medical WSN, and focuses on the election of a Cluster Head (CH), its power consumption, and rotation frequency. The ro...