• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.661-666
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• 2015

This paper presents control performance improvement by modifying center of gravity (COG) of an underwater robotic platform. To reduce the oscillation or to increase the positioning accuracy, it is important to accurately know the COG of an underwater robotic platform. The COG is determined by the three measured tilting angles of the platform in different postures. The tilting angle is measured while the platform is hanged by two strings. Using coordinate transformation, the plane of intersection is defined from the angle of the platform and the position of the string. The COG of the robotic platform is directly calculated by the intersected point in three defined planes. The measured COG is implemented to the control algorithm that is pre-designed in the previous research, and the empirical result on tilting gives 48.26% improved oscillation performance comparing to the oscillation result with the ideal COG position.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.1031-1039
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• 2013

This paper presents gain optimization of a 6-DOF underwater robotic platform with 4 rotatable thrusters. To stabilize the 6-DOF motion of the underwater robotic platform, a back-stepping controller is designed with 6 proportional gains and 6 derivative gains. The 12 gains of the backstepping controller are optimized to decrease settling time in step response in 6-DOF motion independently. Stability criterion and overshoots are used as a constraint of the optimization problem. Trust-region algorithm and hybrid Taguchi-Random order Coordinate search algorithm are used to determine the optimal parameters, and the results by two methods are analyzed. Additionally, the resulting controller shows improved performance under disturbances.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.291-292
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• 2011

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.978-985
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• 2012

Starfish are a critical problem for fishermen since they eat every farming product including shellfish. The number of starfish is increasing dramatically because they have no natural enemy underwater. We consider the concept of capturing starfish using a semi-autonomous robot. A new underwater robot design to capture starfish is proposed using cooperation between humans and the robot. A requirements list for the robot is developed and two conceptual designs are proposed. Each robot is designed as a modular platform. The kinematic and dynamic performance of each robot is analyzed and compared. This study is a starting point for developing a starfish capture robot and designing underwater robots for other applications. In the near future, a prototype will be assembled and tested in a marine environment.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.194-200
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• 2016

Recently, UUVs (unmanned underwater vehicles) have increasingly been applied in various science and engineering applications. In-water inspection, which used to be performed by human divers, is a potential application for UUVs. In particular, the operational safety and performance of in-water inspection missions can be greatly improved by using an underwater robotic vehicle. The capabilities of hovering maneuvers and automatic image mosaicking are essential for autonomous underwater visual inspection. This paper presents the development of a hover-capable autonomous underwater vehicle system for autonomous in-water inspection, which includes both a hardware platform and operational software algorithms. Some results from an experiment in a model basin are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the developed system and algorithms.