• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.49 no.11
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• pp.103-109
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• 2012

Samsung Thales has developed a small-sized autonomous underwater vehicle "BOTO" verified by a mathematical model simulation. The hydrodynamic coefficients and drag force were experimented at circulating water channel for validating cruising performance of the AUV. Based on the mathematical model, we simulated turning radius and way-point tracking on horizontal plane using way-point tracking algorithm. In this paper we introduce the vehicle system and the sea trial test results will be shown.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.402-410
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• 2017

Acoustic based localization is essential to operate autonomous robotic systems in underwater environment where the use of sensorial data is limited. This paper proposes a localization method using artificial underwater acoustic sources. The proposed method acquires directional angles of acoustic sources using time difference of arrivals of two hydrophones. For this purpose, a probabilistic approach is used for accurate estimation of the time delay. Then, Gaussian sum filter based SLAM technique is used to localize both acoustic sources and underwater vehicle. It is performed by using bearing of acoustic sources as measurement and inertial sensors as prediction model. The proposed method can handle directional ambiguity of time difference based source localization by generating Gaussian models corresponding to possible locations of both front and back sides. Through these processes, the proposed method can provide reliable localization method for underwater vehicles without any prior information of source locations. The performance of the proposed method is verified by experimental results conducted in a real sea environment.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2014

Hydrodynamic coefficients strongly affect the dynamic performance of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). A novel kind of underwater vehicle (Heavier-than-water AUV) with higher density than water is presented, which is different from conventional ones. RANS method and overlapping grids are used to simulate the flow field around the vehicle. Lifts, drags and moments of different attack and drift angles in steady state are calculated. The hydrodynamic performances and how the forces change with the attitude are analyzed according to the flow field structure. The steady-state results using overlapping grid method are compared with those of software FLUENT and wind tunnel tests. The calculation results show that the overlapping grid method can well simulate the viscous flow field around the underwater vehicle. Overlapping grid skills have also been used to figure out the planar-motion-mechanism (PMM) problem of Heavier-than-water AUV and forecast its hydrodynamic performance, verifying its effectiveness in dealing with the dynamic problems, which would be quite helpful for design and control of Heavier-than-water AUV and other underwater vehicles.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.6-12
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• 2012

In this paper, addressed is the control problem of generating a formation for a group of unmanned surface and underwater vehicles. The formation control scheme proposed in this work is based on a fusion of theleader-follower and virtual reference approaches. This scheme gives a formation constraint representation that is independent of the number of vehicles in the formation and the resulting control algorithm is scalable. One of the most important features in controller design is the ability of the controller to globally and exponentially stabilize the formation errors defined by the formation constraints. The proposed controller is based on feedback linearization, and the formation errors are shown to be globally and exponentially stable in the sense of Lyapunov.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.319-330
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• 2017

In remote USV (Unmanned Surface Vehicle) maritime operation, the remote operation and control technic and autonomous control technic is required and the emergency mode algorithm is needed certainly for sailing and accomplishing various surveillance, reconnaissance, and underwater search missions of USV. In this paper, we review the countermeasures in emergency situation of the existing USV system (Barracuda) and propose the emergency mode algorithm considering the operation and control, and autonomous control level for the stable USV operation in case of emergency. We analyzed the autonomous control level in view of the mission complexity and environmental difficulty, and human interface, and verified the performance of the autonomous control level when we apply four emergency mode algorithms. It is expected that more stable and reliable operation and cotrol are possible if the proposed algorithm is applied to the environments requiring the various multi-mission USV sailing and mission achievement.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.146-155
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• 2009

This paper considers the path tracking problem in a horizontal plane for underactuated (or non-holonomic) autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Underwater mapping has been an important mission for AUVs. Recently, underwater docking has also become a main research field of AUVs. These kinds of missions basically require accurate attitude and trajectory control performance. However, the non-holonomic problem should be solved to achieve accurate path tracking for the torpedo-type of AUVs. In this paper, resolved motion and acceleration control (RMAC) is considered as a path tracking controller for an underactuated torpedo-shaped AUV, ISiMi. A set of numerical simulations is carried out to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed RMAC scheme, and experimental data with ISiMi100 and discussions are presented.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1060-1065
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• 2005

An Independent Administrative Corporation Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) is developing light-and-small Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV)$^{1)}$, named 'MR-X1' (Marine Robot Experimental 1), which can cruise, investigate and observe by itself without human's help. In this paper, we consider the motion control problem of 'MR-X1' and derive a controller. Since the dynamic property of 'MR-X1' is changed by the influence of the speed, the mathematical model of 'MR-X1' becomes the nonlinear model. In order to design a controller for 'MR-X1', we generally apply nonlinear control theories or linear control theories with some constant speed situation. If we design a controller by applying Linear Quadratic (LQ) optimal control theory, the obtained controller only compensates t e optimality at the designed speed situation, and does not compensate the stability at another speed situations. This paper proposes a controller design method using Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs)$^{2),3),4)}$, which can adapt the speed variation of 'MR-X1'. And examples of numerical analysis using our designed controller are shown.

• International Journal of Ocean System Engineering
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2013

This paper presents a design of fuzzy PD depth controller for the autonomous underwater vehicle entitled KAUV-1. The vehicle is shaped like a torpedo with light weight and small size and used for marine exploration and monitoring. The KAUV-1 has a unique ducted propeller located at aft end with yawing actuation acting as a rudder. For depth control, the KAUV-1 uses a mass shifter mechanism to change its center of gravity, consequently, can control pitch angle and depth of the vehicle. A design of classical PD depth controller for the KAUV-1 was presented and analyzed. However, it has inherent drawback of gains, which is their values are fixed. Meanwhile, in different operation modes, vehicle dynamics might have different effects on the behavior of the vehicle. In this reason, control gains need to be appropriately changed according to vehicle operating states for better performance. This paper presents a self-tuning gain for depth controller using the fuzzy logic method which is based on the classical PD controller. The self-tuning gains are outputs of fuzzy logic blocks. The performance of the self-tuning gain controller is simulated using Matlab/Simulink and is compared with that of the classical PD controller.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.667-675
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• 2013

This paper presents vision-based techniques for underwater landmark detection, map-based localization, and SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) in structured underwater environments. A variety of underwater tasks require an underwater robot to be able to successfully perform autonomous navigation, but the available sensors for accurate localization are limited. A vision sensor among the available sensors is very useful for performing short range tasks, in spite of harsh underwater conditions including low visibility, noise, and large areas of featureless topography. To overcome these problems and to a utilize vision sensor for underwater localization, we propose a novel vision-based object detection technique to be applied to MCL (Monte Carlo Localization) and EKF (Extended Kalman Filter)-based SLAM algorithms. In the image processing step, a weighted correlation coefficient-based template matching and color-based image segmentation method are proposed to improve the conventional approach. In the localization step, in order to apply the landmark detection results to MCL and EKF-SLAM, dead-reckoning information and landmark detection results are used for prediction and update phases, respectively. The performance of the proposed technique is evaluated by experiments with an underwater robot platform in an indoor water tank and the results are discussed.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 2013

In this paper, a localization algorithm and an autonomous controller for PETASUS system II which is an underwater vehicle-manipulator system, are proposed. To estimate its position and to identify manipulation targets in a structured environment, a multi-rate extended Kalman filter is developed, where map information and data from inertial sensors, sonar sensors, and vision sensors are used. In addition, a three layered control structure is proposed as a controller for autonomy. By this controller, PETASUS system II is able to generate waypoints and make decisions on its own behaviors. Experiment results are provided for verifying proposed algorithms.