• 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 Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.396-409
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• 2023

In the field of autonomous vehicles, where high accuracy and reliability are critical, various satellite navigation augmentation systems have been developed to improve system performance. These systems generate correction and integrity information based on measurements and navigation data collected from ground reference stations, enhancing user positioning accuracy. Thus, the performance of the system heavily relies on the deployment and spacing of reference stations. To construct an effective satellite navigation augmentation system, careful consideration must be given to the installation points of reference stations. This paper presents a user positioning performance modeling formula and proposes a method for selecting the installation points of new reference stations. The proposed method involves selecting a candidate group area that can optimize the user's positioning performance. By utilizing this method, the system's performance can be improved, ensuring high accuracy and reliability for autonomous vehicle applications.

• 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.25 no.1
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• pp.27-31
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• 2011

The previously developed method of estimating the propulsion performance of a UUV was applied to the high speed UUV, which is propelled by commercial thrusters. The thrusters were selected with an overdesign mentality; in other words, their capacities were excessive. At that point, the designer's concern was focused on a question regarding at what rpm the UUV could reach the design speed. Because the developed method required thrust coefficient curve data, the researchers asked for the POW data of the thrusters from the manufacturer. From the data, the researchers extracted the thrust coefficient and estimated the rpm value of design speed for the UUV. Finally, the researchers compared the estimated value and the result from a self-propulsion test using a VPMM (Vertical planar motion mechanism) test at a towing tank in MOERI.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.80-87
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• 2011

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) present the important advantage of being able to approach the seafloor more closely than surface vessel surveys can. To collect bathymetric data, bottom material information, and sub-surface images, multibeam echosounder, sidescan sonar (SSS) and subbottom profiler (SBP) equipment mounted on an AUV are powerful tools. The 3000m class AUV URASHIMA was developed by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). After finishing the engineering development and examination phase of a fuel-cell system used for the vehicle's power supply system, a renovated lithium-ion battery power system was installed in URASHIMA. The AUV was redeployed from its prior engineering tasks to scientific use. Various scientific instruments were loaded on the vehicle, and experimental dives for science-oriented missions conducted from 2006. During the experimental cruise of 2007, high-resolution acoustic images were obtained by SSS and SBP on the URASHIMA around the northern Kumano Basin off Japan's Kii Peninsula. The map of backscatter intensity data revealed many debris objects, and SBP images revealed the subsurface structure around the north-eastern end of our study area. These features suggest a structure related to the formation of the latest submarine fan. However, a strong reflection layer exists below ~20 ms below the seafloor in the south-western area, which we interpret as a denudation feature, now covered with younger surface sediments. We continue to improve the vehicle's performance, and expect that many fruitful results will be obtained using URASHIMA.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.7
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• pp.622-628
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• 2016

The prosperity of IT technologies and the removal of restrictions regarding Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, have driven growth in their popularity. However, without a proper solution to the problem of accident avoidance for UAVs, this popularity increases the potential for collisions between UAVs and between UAV and terrain features. These collisions can occur because UAVs to date have flown using radio control or image recognition based autonomous navigation. Therefore, we propose efficient UAV routing schemes to tackle the collision problem using vehicular communication systems. Performance evaluation by computer simulation shows that the proposed methods effectively reduce the collision probability and improve the routing efficiency of the UAV. Furthermore, the proposed algorithms are compatible and can be directly applied with small overhead to the commercial vehicular communication system implementation.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.11
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• pp.1868-1878
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• 2016

This paper proposes a novel velocity estimator for long-term underwater navigation of autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs). Provided that an external position fix is not given, a viable goal in designing a underwater navigation algorithm is to reduce the divergence rate of position error only using the sporadic velocity information obtained from Doppler velocity log(DVL). For such case, the performance of underwater navigation eventually depends on accuracy and reliability of external velocity information. This motivates us to devise a velocity estimator which can drastically enhance the navigation performance even when the DVL measurement is unavailable. Incorporating the Gertler-Hagen hydrodynamics model of an AUV with the measurement models of velocity and depth sensors, the velocity estimator design problem is resolved using the extended Kalman filter. Different from the existing methods in which an AUV simulator is regarded as a virtual sensor, our approach is less sensitive to the model uncertainty often encountered in practice. This is because our velocity filter estimates the simulator errors with sensor aids and furthermore compensates these errors based on the indirect feedforward manner. Through the simulations for typical AUV navigation scenarios, the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated.