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In this paper, we present DexROV, an EC Horizon 2020-funded project that proposes to implement novel operation strategies for underwater semiautonomous interventions. These costly and demanding operations are increasingly performed by remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), contributing to risk cutting for human divers. However, ROV operations require offshore structures, hosted on a support vessel with a crew of a significant amount of personnel necessary to properly handle and operate the robotic platform. One of the key goals of DexROV is to delocalize on shore the manned support as much as possible, reducing the crew onboard the support vessel and consequently the costs and risks of the whole operation. The control center is located onshore, far from the actual operation location. Operators interact with the ROV through a simulation environment that exploit 3D models of the environment built online relying on the perception and modeling capabilities of the robotic system and transmitted via satellite communication. Currently, ROVs lack the dexterous capabilities needed to perform many kinds of operations, for which human divers are still necessary. DexROV addresses this problem, equipping the ROV with two 6 DOF (degrees of freedom) dexterous manipulators with anthropomorphic end-effectors and providing semiautonomous capabilities. The control will rely on a multitask priority approach that will help the operator to focus on the main operation, leaving the low-level tasks to be autonomously performed by the ROV.

The Italian national project MARIS (Marine Robotics for Interventions) pursues the strategic objective of studying, developing, and integrating technologies and methodologies to enable the development of autonomous underwater robotic systems employable for intervention activities. These activities are becoming progressively more typical for the underwater offshore industry, for search-and-rescue operations, and for underwater scientific missions. Within such an ambitious objective, the project consortium also intends to demonstrate the achievable operational capabilities at a proof-of-concept level by integrating the results with prototype experimental systems.

Il confronto con alcuni rilievi attici e con la parte finale dell'Anabasi di Senofonte consente di proporre una identificazione plausibile dell'epiclesi di Zeus, unica divinità menzionata nella colonna B della Lex sacra di Selinunte.