Interconnectable gadgets and web services usage in supervisory control of Unmanned Underwater vehicles

Unmanned Underwater vehicles (UUVs) are routinely used for data collection during underwater research missions. UUV operators which perform advanced data collection are usually not qualified for data interpretation. On the fly adaptation of data collection methods based on interpreted data can increase data quality and lower the operator´s effort. However, this requires the presence of an expert on site. In order to avoid this, a system of remote monitoring and control over the Internet is proposed. Closing the vehicle control loop over the Internet is problematic due to latency issues, therefore a supervisory control approach is used. This requires only high-level commands to be sent over the Internet while closing the control loop locally. Service oriented architecture (SOA) is used as an API for vehicle monitoring and mission control, while software gadgets are used to display collected data and to send commands for mission adaptation. Gadgets provide support for modifying and displaying data as well as defining and detecting logical conditions. Usage of connectible gadgets as building blocks eliminates the need for expertise in programming languages while increasing the scalability and flexibility of the system.