Model-Free, Position-Free Signal Source Seeking Using Unmanned Maritime Systems

Long-range signal source detection in open-world environments presents a significant challenge, mainly due to the detrimental effects of the environment on signals propagation paths and presence of extraneous signal sources. While distributed static sensing systems are often employed, achieving scalability and comprehensive coverage across expansive areas is cost-prohibitive. One affordable solution involves using low-cost autonomous unmanned vehicles (AUVs) that can leverage their mobility and actively explore the environment using extremum seeking control (ESC) algorithms. This talk presents novel ESC approaches to steer AUVs to sources of interest in an a priori unknown, highly non-convex map. Zahra Nili Ahmadabadi is Associate Professor with the Mechanical Engineering Department at San Diego State University (SDSU). She is a recipient of the ASME rising star award and ARO Early career award. Nili is currently the associate editor of Sage Journal of Vibration and Control. Her current research interests include robot perception and control, and nonlinear systems Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.16365 Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.12290 #FiftyOne #Voxel51 #DataCuration #AIAgents #ComputerVision #MCP #YOLO #DataCentricAI #skills #agenticai