• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.297-315
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• 2011

New applications of streamlined Autonomous Underwater Vehicles require an AUV capable of completing missions with both high-speed straight-line runs and slow maneuvers or station keeping tasks. At low, or zero, forward speeds, the AUV's control surfaces become ineffective. To improve an AUV's low speed maneuverability, while maintaining a low drag profile, through-body tunnel thrusters have become a popular addition to modern AUV systems. The effect of forward vehicle motion and sideslip on these types of thrusters is not well understood. In order to characterize these effects and to adapt existing tunnel thruster models to include them, an experimental system was constructed. This system includes a transverse tunnel thruster mounted in a streamlined AUV. A 6-axis load cell mounted internally was used to measure the thrust directly. The AUV was mounted in Memorial University of Newfoundland's tow tank, and several tests were run to characterize the effect of vehicle motion on the transient and steady state thruster performance. Finally, a thruster model was modified to include these effects.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.768-773
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• 2013

In this paper, decoupled course, depth and roll controller design for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and its performance test results are presented. Control system design is done using the PD control scheme based on a mathematical model of the AUV. Details of system implementation are given and the results of simulations and experiments using the prototype vehicle model are discussed. The designed controller was successfully applied to the nonlinear and coupled system under non-ideal actuator conditions.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.106-112
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• 1997

This paper describes the development of a test-bed vehicle named TAUV which can be a tool to evaluate the performance of a new control algorithm, operating software and the characteristics of sensors for an AUV. The test-bed AUV is designed to operate at depth of ten meters. It is 19.5kg in air and neural buoyancy in water and the dimension is $535{\times}400{\times}102mm$. TAUV is equipped with a magnetic compass, a biazial inclinometer, a rate gyro, a pressure sensor and an altitude sonae for measuring the motion of the vehicle. Two horizoltal thursters and two elevators are installed in order to propel and control the AUV. This paper persents the control system of TAUV which is based on a 16 bit single-chip microprocessor, 80c196kc, and the software architecture for the operating system. Experimental results are included to verify the performance of the TAUV.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.473-480
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• 2013

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the genetic algorithm can be useful for the global path planning when the obstacles and current field data are given. In particular, the possibilities for a novel type small AUV mission deployment in tidal regions, which experience vortical currents, were examined. Experimental simulations show feasibility and effective in generate the global path regardless of current and obstacles. By choosing an appropriate path in space, an AUV may both bypass adverse currents which are too fast to be overcome by the vehicle's motor and also exploit favorable currents to achieve far greater speeds than motors could otherwise provide, while substantially saving energy.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.79-85
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• 2018

This study focuses on autonomous exploration based on map expansion for an underwater robot equipped with acoustic sonars. Map expansion is applicable to large-area mapping, but it may affect localization accuracy. Thus, as the key contribution of this paper, we propose a method for underwater autonomous exploration wherein the robot determines the trade-off between map expansion ratio and position accuracy, selects which of the two has higher priority, and then moves to a mission step. An occupancy grid map is synthesized by utilizing the measurements of an acoustic range sonar that determines the probability of occupancy. This information is then used to determine a path to the frontier, which becomes the new search point. During area searching and map building, the robot revisits artificial landmarks to improve its position accuracy as based on imaging sonar-based recognition and EKF-SLAM if the position accuracy is above the predetermined threshold. Additionally, real-time experiments were conducted by using an underwater robot, yShark, to validate the proposed method, and the analysis of the results is discussed herein.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.109.5-109
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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 in underwater. This paper presents a visual servo control system for an AUV to dock into an underwater station with a camera. To make the visual servo control system , this paper derives an optical flow model of a camera mounted on an AUV, where a CCD camera is installed at the nose center of the AUV to monitor the docking condition. This paper combines the optical flow equation of the camera with the AUV's equation o...

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.1-7
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• 2012

This paper deals with the global path planning problem for AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles) in a tidal current field. The previous researches in the field were unsuccessful at simultaneously addressing the two issues of obstacle avoidance and tidal current-based optimization. The use of a genetic algorithm is proposed in this paper to move past this limitation and solve both issues at once. Simulation results showed that the genetic algorithm could be applied to generate an optimal path in the field of a tidal current with multiple obstacles.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.154-163
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• 2013

In this paper, we propose a formation control algorithm for underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) with parametric uncertainties using the approach angle. The approach angle is used to solve the underactuated problem for AUVs, and the leader-follower strategy is used for the formation control. The proposed controller considers the nonzero off-diagonal terms of the mass matrix of the AUV model and the associated parametric uncertainties. Using the state transformation, the mass matrix, which has nonzero off-diagonal terms, is transformed into a diagonal matrix to simplify designing the control. To deal with the parametric uncertainties of the AUV model, a self-recurrent wavelet neural network is used. The proposed formation controller is designed based on the dynamic surface control technique. Some simulation results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed control method.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.488-498
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• 2015

This paper presents the dynamic model of an AUV called HW200 for underwater surveillance. The mathematical model of HW200 is briefly introduced, considering its shape. The maneuvering coefficients were initially estimated using empirical formulas and a database of vehicles with similar shapes. A motion simulator, based on Simulink of Mathworks, was developed to evaluate the mathematical model of the vehicle and to tune the maneuvering coefficients. The parameters were finely tuned by comparing the experimental results and simulated responses generated with the simulator by applying the same control inputs as the experiment. The velocity of HW200 in the tuning process was fixed at a constant forward speed of 1.83 m/s. Simulations with variable speed commands were conducted, and the results showed good consistency in the motion response, attitude, and velocity of the vehicle, which were similar to those of the experiment even under the speed variation. This paper also discusses the feasibility of its application to a model-based integrated navigation system (INS) using the auxiliary information on the velocities generated by the model.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.233-239
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• 2019

An unmanned underwater vehicle is a major weapon system that allows surveillance and reconnaissance missions in border areas or threatening areas where enemy submarines are present. Unmanned underwater vehicles can be used to explore underwater resources, predict disasters, and survey the topography of the ocean floor in the civilian fields, while in the defense fields, it can be used for anti-submarine reconnaissance and mine countermeasures. In this paper, we first investigate the main classification of unmanned underwater vehicles, and foreign R&D trends are analyzed based on the main classification criteria by weight, such as portable, light, heavy and large-scale unmanned underwater vehicles. Then we examine the trends in the development of domestic unmanned underwater vehicles. Finally, through the analysis of both domestic and foreign unmanned underwater vehicles, we present future development trends of unmanned underwater vehicles in order to set defense goals to counter the anticipated threats and diversified potential environment.