• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.141-149
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• 2016

In this technical note, the issues and challenges for the launch and recovery systems (LARS) and related techniques for the operation of an underwater robot from a manned platform are considered. Various types of LARS fitted to specific manned platforms, surface or sub-surface, are surveyed and categorized. The current UUV launch and recovery systems from surface ships and submarines utilize time consuming processes. As underwater robot technologies evolve and their roles are defined, safe and effective launch and recovery methods should be developed capable of reliable and efficient operations, particularly at a high sea state. To improve the existing underwater robot capabilities, LARS technology maturation is required in the near term, leading to the ability to incorporate autonomous LARS for an underwater robot on a manned platform. In the near term, particular emphasis should be placed on UUV LARS, which are surface ship based, with submarine based systems in the long term. Furthermore, for a dedicated LARS ship, independent of the existing host ship type, particular emphasis should be given to fully utilizing the capabilities of underwater robots.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.237-240
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• 1997

The design of underwater inspection robot system is presented. This robot system is designed for wall inspection in the nuclear plant facility. This paper describes the major components of the robot and its structures. This robot system is consisted of three parts : mechanical electrical and sensing pail. The main problem of designing mechanical part is to select the mechanism of driving. In this system the propeller driving mechanism is selected which can be move the robot continuously. For reducing the size of robot, we designed the CPU and motor controller board. The sensor system is consisted of two parts. One is environment monitoring part and the other is robot localization system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.666-673
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• 2013

This paper proposes the performance evaluation test of attitude heading reference system (AHRS) suitable for small high speed autonomous underwater vehicle(AUV). Although IMU can provides the detail attitude information, it is sometime not suitable for small AUV with short operation time in view of price and the electrical power consumption. One of alternative for tactical grade IMU is the AHRS based micro-machined electro mechanical system(MEMS) which can overcome many problems that have inhibited the adoption of inertial system for small AUV such as cost and power consumption. A cost effective and small size AHRS which incorporates measurements from 3-axis MEMS gyroscopes, accelerometers, and 3-axis magnetometers has been developed to provide a complete attitude solution for AUV and the attitude calculation algorithm is derived based the coordinate transform equation and Kalman filter. The developed AHRS was validated through various performance tests as like the magnetometer calibration, operating experiments using land mobile vehicle and flight motion simulator (FMS). The test of magnetometer calibration shows the developed MEMS AHRS is robust to the external magent field change and the test with land vehicle proves the leveling error of developed MEMS AHRS is below $0.5^{\circ}/hr$. The results of FMS test shows the fact that AHRS provides the measurement with $0.5^{\circ}/hr$ error during 5 minutes operation time. These results of performance evaluation tests showed that the developed AHRS provides attitude information which error of roll and pitch are below $1^{\circ}$ and the error of yaw is below $5^{\circ}$ and satisfies the required specification. It is expected that developed AHRS can provide the precise attitude measurement under sea trial with real AUV.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.142-148
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• 2002

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are unmanned underwater vessels to investigate sea environments, oceanography and deep-sea resources autonomously. Docking systems are required to increase the capability of the AUVs to recharge the batteries and to transmit data in real time for specific underwater works, such as repeated jobs at sea bed. This paper presents a visual servo control system for an AUV to dock into an underwater station with a camera mounted at the nose center of the AUV. To make the visual servo control system, this paper derives an optical flow model of a camera, where the projected motions of the image plane are described with the rotational and translational velocities of the AUV. This paper combines the optical flow equation of the camera with the AUVs equation of motion, and derives a state equation for the visual servoing AUV. This paper proposes a discrete-time MIMO controller minimizing a cost function. The control inputs of the AUV are automatically generated with the projected target position on the CCD plane of the camera and with the AUVs motion. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the modeling and the control law of the visual servoing AUV, simulations on docking the AUV to a target station are performed with the 6-dof nonlinear equations of REMUS AUV and a CCD camera.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.171-178
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• 2017

In this paper, in order to verify the performance of a localization algorithm using GPS as an auxiliary sensor, the algorithm was applied to a hovering-type autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to perform a field test. The applied algorithm is an algorithm to improve the accumulated positional error of dead reckoning using doppler velocity logger(DVL) and tilt-compensated compass module (TCM) mounted on the AUV. GPS when surfaced helps the algorithm to estimate the position and the heading bias error of TCM for geodetic north, which makes it possible to perform dead reckoning on north-east-down (NED) coordinates. As a result of field test performing heading control, it was judged that the algorithm could improve the positional error, enhance the operational capability of AUV and contribute to the research of underwater navigation depending on a magnetic compass.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.213-216
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• 2007

The paper deals with a approach to underwater acoustic based Ad-hoc communication, which allows major design strategies for Media Access Control (MAC) within a group of the autonomous underwater vehicles(AUV). The proposed MAC aims at deploying AUV-centric star topology, which minimizes overhead of sensor nodes and improves energy-efficiency. Furthermore, that is also well under long and unknown propagation delays of the underwater acoustic medium. The implemented MAC protocol makes it easier to achieve frame synchronization than TDMA due to deploying localized schedule time, in addition to saving energy consumption by letting nodes sleep. It is also superior to MACA and MACAW in terms of propagation delay. This scalable centralized protocol has the potential to serve as a primer for development of MAC protocol for future underwater acoustic based ad-hoc networks.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.482-487
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• 2008

In case of flooding, the underwater flight vehicle (UFV) executes the blowing by blowing ballast tanks off using high pressure air (HPA), while it also uses control planes and a propulsion unit to reduce the overshoot depth caused by a flooding and blowing sequence. However, the conventional whole HPA blow-off method lets the body on the surface after blowing despite slight flooding. This results in the unnecessary mission failure or body exposure. Therefore, it is necessary to keep the body at the near surface by the blowing control while reducing the overshoot depth. To solve this problem, an adaptive blowing control algorithm, which is based on the decomposition method expanding the expert knowledge in depth control and the adaptive method using fuzzy basis function expansion (FBFE), is proposed. To verify the performance of the proposed algorithm, the blowing control of UFV is performed. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm effectively solves the problems in the UFV blowing control system online.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.391-407
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• 2019

Tracking the location (position) of a surface or underwater marine vehicle is important as part of guidance and navigation. While the Global Positioning System (GPS) works well in an open sea environment but its use is limited whenever testing scaled-down models of such vehicles in the laboratory environment. This paper presents the design, development and implementation of a low energy ultrasonic augmented single beacon-based localization technique suitable for such requirements. The strategy consists of applying Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to achieve location tracking from basic dynamic distance measurements of the moving model from a fixed beacon, while on-board motion sensor measures heading angle and velocity. Iterative application of the Extended Kalman Filter yields x and y co-ordinate positions of the moving model. Tests performed on a free-running ship model in a wave basin facility of dimension 30 m by 30 m by 3 m water depth validate the proposed model. The test results show quick convergence with an error of few centimeters in the estimated position of the ship model. The proposed technique has application in the real field scenario by replacing the ultrasonic sensor with industrial grade long range acoustic modem. As compared with the existing systems such as LBL, SBL, USBL and others localization techniques, the proposed technique can save deployment cost and also cut the cost on number of acoustic modems involved.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.181-193
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• 2022

This study presents a mission management technique that is a key component of underwater docking system used to expand the operating range of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). We analyzed the docking scenario and AUV operating environment, defining the feasible initial area (FIA) level, event level, and global path (GP) command to improve the rate of docking success and AUV safety. Non-holonomic constraints, mounted sensor characteristic, AUV and mission state, and AUV behavior were considered. Using AUV and docking station, we conducted experiments on land and at sea. The first test was conducted on land to prevent loss and damage of the AUV and verify stability and interconnection with other algorithms; it performed well in normal and abnormal situations. Subsequently, we attempted to dock under the sea and verified its performance; it also worked well in a sea environment. In this study, we presented the mission management technique and showed its performance. We demonstrated AUV docking with this algorithm and verified that the rate of docking success was higher compared to those obtained in other studies.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.165-171
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• 2014

In this paper, we propose the hardware and software of a test-bed of a hovering AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle). Test-bed to develop as the underwater robot for the hovering -type is planning to apply for marine resource development and exploration for deep sea. The RTU that controls a azimuth thruster and a vertical thruster of test-bed is a intergrated-type thruster. The main control unit that collects sensor's data and performs high-speed processing and controls a movement of test-bed is a underwater hybrid navigation system. Also it transfers position, posture, state information of test-bed to the host PC of user using a wireless communication. The host PC checks a test-bed in real time by using a realtime monitoring system that is implemented by LabVIEW.