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Grant support
The research leading to the presented results has been partially undertaken within the SWAMRs European project (Smart and Networking Underwater Robots in Cooperation Meshes), under Grant Agreement n. 662107-SWARMs-ECSEL-2014-1, partially supported by the ECSEL JU and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Ref: PCIN-2014-022-C02-02).
Analysis of institutional authors
Lucas Martinez, NestorCorresponding AuthorMartinez-Ortega, Jose-FerninAuthorCastillejo, PedroAuthorBeltran Martinez, VictoriaCorresponding AuthorSurvey of Mission Planning and Management Architectures for Underwater Cooperative Robotics Operations
Publicated to:Applied Sciences-Basel. 10 (3): 1086- - 2020-02-01 10(3), DOI: 10.3390/app10031086
Authors: Lucas Martinez, Nestor; Martinez-Ortega, Jose-Fernin; Castillejo, Pedro; Beltran Martinez, Victoria
Affiliations
Abstract
Almost every research project that focuses on the cooperation of autonomous robots for underwater operations designs their own architectures. As a result, most of these architectures are tightly coupled with the available robots/vehicles for their respective developments, and therefore the mission plan and management is done using an ad-hoc solution. Typically, this solution is tightly coupled to just one underwater autonomous vehicle (AUV), or a restricted set of them selected for the specific project. However, as the use of AUVs for underwater operations increases, there is the need to identify some commonalities and weaknesses of these architectures, specifically in relation to mission planning and management. In this paper, we review a selected number of architectures and frameworks that in one way or another make use of different approaches to mission planning and management. Most of the selected works were developed for underwater operations. Still, we have included some other architectures and frameworks from other domains that can be of interest for the survey. The explored works have been assessed using selected features related to mission planning and management, considering that underwater operations are performed in an uncertain and unreliable environment, and where unexpected events are not strange. Furthermore, we have identified and highlighted some potential challenges for the design and implementation of mission managers. This provides a reference point for the development of a mission manager component to be integrated in architectures for cooperative robotics in underwater operations, and it can serve for the same purposes in other domains of application.
Keywords
Quality index
Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel
The work has been published in the journal Applied Sciences-Basel due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2020, it was in position 38/90, thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category Engineering, Multidisciplinary. Notably, the journal is positioned en el Cuartil Q2 para la agencia Scopus (SJR) en la categoría Instrumentation.
From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 1.39, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)
Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-13, the following number of citations:
- WoS: 4
- Scopus: 5
- Google Scholar: 10
Impact and social visibility
Leadership analysis of institutional authors
There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (LUCAS MARTINEZ, NESTOR) and Last Author (BELTRAN MARTINEZ, MARIA VICTORIA).
the authors responsible for correspondence tasks have been LUCAS MARTINEZ, NESTOR and BELTRAN MARTINEZ, MARIA VICTORIA.