The Swedish Maritime Research Center (SMaRC) is dedicated to industrial R&D of maritime robotics and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for ocean production, society safety and environmental sensing

graph LR;
	A["Autonomy"]
	B["Endurance"]
	C["Perception"]
	D["Communication"]
	E["SMaRC"]

E --> A
E --> B
E --> C
E --> D

These are the four main research disciplines in SMaRC. Based on my background and interests, if I were to choose among them, I would express my interest in the autonomy and perception departments

Robots at SMaRC

  • LoLo - Long-range, long-endurance robots
  • SAM - Small and Affordable remotely operated robots
  • Wallenberg AUVs

Collaborating organizations

  • KTH
  • Stockholm University
  • University of Gothenburg
  • Saab Kockums
  • Saab Dynamics
  • Ocean Infinity
  • FMV Sweden (Defence Materials)
  • FOI Sweden (Defence Research)

SMaRC projects of interest

Autonomous Underwater Perception

Responsible Professor: Dr. John Folkesson This project involves the development of perception algorithms and data visualization from sensors using 3D modeling and ML. The algorithms are integrated into SLAM Example project: Side-scan sonar used to iteratively refine AUV pose and bathymetric map of seafloor using methods like neural rendering of sonar signal strength

Underwater Navigation

Responsible Professor: Dr. John Folkesson This project involves the development of navigation algorithms for SLAM integration. This attempts to take over presently impractical solutions such as Long-Base-Line (LBL) and Ultra-Short-Base-Line (USBL). Camera and sonar data is used to provide SLAM solutions. The data for this project is collected from benign environments like MMT survey data and SEAFARM as well as harsh realistic areas like Antarctica

Multi-agent Mission Planning and Execution

Responsible Professor: Dr. Petter Ögren This project involves swarm robotics and multi-robot collaboration