The GREX-Project: Coordination and control of cooperating heterogeneous unmanned systems in uncertain environments

Today, due to the current state-of-the-art of embedded systems, underwater robotic vehicles are limited in both, their autonomy and capabilities. In order to increase their utility it is advantageous to run multiple vehicles at the same time whereby each vehicle serves as individual node in an underwater network. In this context a group of leading European vehicle manufacturers and researchers set up a collaborative R&D initiative called `GREX' (Latin word for a herd or flock) under the sixth framework program of the EC. This paper will give a general overview and some selected results of the project with emphasis on the systems aspect.