IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2012 - 102

at http://www.umv.ge.issia.cnr.it/video/vessel_following.
html, thus providing a small contribution to the diffusion
of data sets about marine robotics applications.
Conclusions
Preliminary experimental results demonstrating the effectiveness of a vehicle-following guidance system for USVs
based on the concept of virtual target have been presented
and discussed, after a brief presentation of the proposed
approach. The above-presented research as well as a few
other similar demonstrations cited in the text contribute to
bridge the gap between theory and practice in the field of
UMVs encouraging the application of this emerging
technology not only in military scenarios but also in civilian applications.
Acknowledgments
This research has been partially funded by the CNRCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
bilateral agreement Coordinated mission control for autonomous marine vehicles and Parco Scientifico e Tecnologico
della Liguria s.c.p.a.
The authors thank the Hydrographic Institute of the
Italian Navy for supplying high-positioning GPS devices
and participating in the definition of the multivehicle
maneuvers. Moreover, the authors also thank Giorgio
Bruzzone and Edoardo Spirandelli for their activity in the
development and operation of the ALANIS and Charlie
USVs, Riccardo Mantovani for the video documentation
of the experiments, and the personnel of A.S.D.P.S. Pra
Sapello for their kind support to the execution of sea trials.

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Marco Bibuli, Istituto di Studi sui Sistemi Intelligenti
per l'Automazione, CNR, Genova, Italy. E-mail: marco.
bibuli@ge.issia.cnr.it.

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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

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SEPTEMBER 2012

Massimo Caccia, Istituto di Studi sui Sistemi Intelligenti
per l'Automazione, CNR, Genova, Italy. E-mail: max@ge.
issia.cnr.it.
Lionel Lapierre, Laboratoire d'Informatique, Robotique
et Micro-electronique de Montpellier of CNRS, Montpel
lier, France. E-mail: lapierre@lirmm.fr.
Gabriele Bruzzone, Istituto di Studi sui Sistemi Intelligenti
per l'Automazione, CNR, Genova, Italy. E-mail: gabry@
ian.ge.cnr.it.
http://www.umv.ge.issia.cnr.it/video/vessel_following http://www.ivt.ntnu.no/imt/ http://issia.cnr.it http://ian.ge.cnr.it
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2012
