This Special Issue is devoted to recent developments in instrumentation and measurement techniques applied to the marine field. ¶The sea is the medium that has allowed people to travel from one continent to another using vessels, even today despite the use of aircraft. It has also been acting as a great reservoir and source of food for all living beings. However, for many generations, it served as a landfill for depositing conventional and nuclear wastes, especially in its deep seabeds, and we are assisting in a race to exploit minerals and resources, different from foods, encompassed in it. Its health is a great challenge for the survival of all humanity since it is one of the most important environmental components targeted by global warming. ¶ As everyone may know, measuring is a step that generates substantial knowledge about a phenomenon or an asset, which is the basis for proposing correct solutions and making proper decisions. However, measurements in the sea environment pose unique difficulties and opportunities, which is made clear from the research results presented in this Special Issue.

The oceans are a hostile environment, and gathering information on deep-sea life and the seabed is incredibly difficult. Autonomous underwater vehicles are robot submarines that are revolutionizing the way in which researchers and industry obtain data. Advances in technology have resulted in capable vehicles that have made new discoveries on how th

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Sensors and Techniques for 3D Object Modeling in Underwater Environments" that was published in Sensors

A classic in underwater robotics. One of the first volumes in the “Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics” series, it has been a bestseller through the previous three editions. Fifteen years after the publication of the first edition, the fourth edition comes to print. The book addresses the main control aspects in underwater manipulation tasks. With respect to the third edition, it has been revised, extended and some concepts better clustered. The mathematical model with significant impact on the control strategy is discussed. The problem of controlling a 6-degrees-of-freedoms autonomous underwater vehicle is investigated and a survey of fault detection/tolerant strategies for unmanned underwater vehicles is provided. Inverse kinematics, dynamic and interaction control for underwater vehicle-manipulator systems are then discussed. The code used to generate most of the numerical simulations is made available and briefly discussed.

A detailed review of underwater channel characteristics, Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks investigates the fundamental aspects of underwater communication. Prominent researchers from around the world consider contemporary challenges in the development of underwater acoustic sensor networks (UW-ASNs) and introduce a cross-layer approach for effec

Robotics is undergoing a major transformation in scope and dimension. From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics is rapidly expanding into human en- ronments and vigorously engaged in its new challenges. Interacting with, assi- ing, serving, and exploring with humans, the emerging robots will increasingly touch people and their lives. Beyond its impact on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has p- duced is revealing a much wider range of applications reaching across diverse research areas and scientific disciplines, such as: biomechanics, haptics, neuros- ences, virtual simulation, animation, surgery, and sensor networks among others. In return, the challenges of the new emerging areas are proving an abundant source of stimulation and insights for the field of robotics. It is indeed at the int- section of disciplines that the most striking advances happen. The Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) is devoted to bringing to the research community the latest advances in the robotics field on the basis of their significance and quality. Through a wide and timely dissemination of critical - search developments in robotics, our objective with this series is to promote more exchanges and collaborations among the researchers in the community and c- tribute to further advancements in this rapidly growing field.

Archaeological Oceanography is the definitive book on the newly emerging field of deep-sea archaeology. Marine archaeologists have been finding and excavating underwater shipwrecks since at least the early 1950s, but until recently their explorations have been restricted to depths considered shallow by oceanographic standards. This book describes the latest advances that enable researchers to probe the secrets of the deep ocean, and the vital contributions these advances offer to archaeology and fields like maritime history and anthropology. Renowned oceanographer Robert Ballard--who stunned the world with his discovery of the Titanic deep in the North Atlantic--has gathered together the pioneers of archaeological oceanography, a cross-disciplinary group of archaeologists, oceanographers, ocean engineers, and anthropologists who have undertaken ambitious expeditions into the deep sea. In this book, they discuss the history of archaeological oceanography and the evolution and use of advanced deep-submergence technology to locate and excavate ancient and modern shipwrecks and cultural and other sites deep under water. They offer examples from their own expeditions and explain the challenges future programs face in obtaining access to the resources needed to carry out this important and exciting research. The contributors are Robert D. Ballard, Ali Can, Dwight F. Coleman, Mike J. Durbin, Ryan Eustace, Brendan Foley, Cathy Giangrande, Todd S. Gregory, Rachel L. Horlings, Jonathan Howland, Kevin McBride, James B. Newman, Dennis Piechota, Oscar Pizarro, Christopher Roman, Hanumant Singh, Cheryl Ward, and Sarah Webster.

A keyword listing of serial titles currently received by the National Library of Medicine.