C-Manipulator: An autonomous dual manipulator project for underwater inspection and maintenance

We present the new project C-Manipulator (funded by the German Ministry of Economics (BMWI), Grant No. 03SX231). The goal of C-Manipulator is the development of an autonomous, modular dual manipulator system for underwater applications. This paper provides an overview over the project. It explains shortly the relevance of autonomous underwater manipulation. Then it describes briefly the state-of-the-art, explains the new vision-based control approach featuring visual servoing techniques and the planned manipulator system design featuring the Sub-C Network. Furthermore, a new developed indoor test-bed using a gantry crane for UUV-simulation is introduced, which will be used to test the manipulator system under realistic conditions and to prepare the system for a final test in the Baltic sea, which is planned for 2009.