For enabling a not-expert user to drive an underwater robotic system, an intuitive ergonomic Graphical User Interface (GUI), supporting the main system functionalities, is certainly a fundamental ingredient.

 

In more than fifteen years of activities, Graal Tech people have realized several GUI for different robotic systems, including submerged buoys, underwater vehicles and manipulation devices.

 

Very often the developed GUIs are OS-independent and can run on multiple platforms, including ruggedized laptops and touchscreen interfaces.

 

Whenever a sufficently large-bandwidth data link with the mechatronic system is available (either through a WiFI link on surface or through a tether), Graal Tech GUIs support the usage of joysticks or other ergonomic controllers, providing a direct access to all the system actuators. 

 

In the same conditions, data coming from all the on-board sensors are made immediately available to the user in an effective way, through on-line updated displays and graphs over time. In the same way, also software variables of interest (like parameter of the control system, or logic information on the system status) can be remoted to the user and integrated in the GUI in order to be on-line monitorable.

 

In the absence of an effective data link, if the mechatronic system has to work autononomously underwater, the GUIs allow the user to easily configure all the relevant parameters of the mission before its beginning, like the desired set of 3D geo-referred positions to reach, the speed profile to attain, the mode of use of the sensing payload, the ending conditions, etc. In addition, if the mechatronic system is provided with an acoustic modem, the GUI can be interfaced with a compatible device on surface, enabling the user to exchange few data with the submerged system even during the mission execution.

Graphical User Interfaces