• 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 Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.179-189
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• 2000

Recently, due to the increasing interests in deep sea development, all possible efforts to the development of underwater unmanned working vehicles such as AUV(Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) or underwater robot are exerted. This paper proposes a new efficient acoustic-based underwater image data communication system, which ensures a certain level of maximum throughput regardless of the propagation delay of ultrasonic and allowsfast data transmission through the multiple ultrasonic communication channel. Proposed system consists of an acoustic transducer which operates at 136kHz center frequency and it's 10kHz bandwidth, pre-amplifier, $\pi/4 QPSK$(Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) modulation/demodu-lation method, image compressing method using JPEG technique and modified Stop & Wait protocol. The experimental result of the system make it possible to transfer the underwater image as a high throughput at the basin test. The results of test are also verified which allows to desirable transmission performance compared with the existing developed system and the possibility to put the practical use of survey and investigation in the water.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.58-68
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• 2009

The increased use of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) has led to the development of alternative navigational methods that do not employ acoustic beacons and dead reckoning sensors. This paper describes a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) scheme that uses range sonars mounted on a small UUV. A SLAM scheme is an alternative navigation method for measuring the environment through which the vehicle is passing and providing the relative position of the UUV. A technique for a SLAM algorithm that uses several ranging sonars is presented. This technique utilizes an unscented Kalman filter to estimate the locations of the UUV and surrounding objects. In order to work efficiently, the nearest neighbor standard filter is introduced as the data association algorithm in the SLAM for associating the stored targets returned by the sonar at each time step. The proposed SLAM algorithm was tested by experiments under various three degrees of freedom motion conditions. The results of these experiments showed that the proposed SLAM algorithm was capable of estimating the position of the UUV and the surrounding objects and demonstrated that the algorithm will perform well in various environments.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.511-518
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• 2023

Accurate ranging is one of the key factors in the test and evaluation process of underwater vehicles. In particular, when estimating range using Time of Arrival (ToA) values, signals such as Linear Frequency Modulation (LFM), a chirp signal, are highly applicable due to their correlated nature. However, in a Doppler shift environment with mobility, measurement errors may occur due to the range-Doppler coupling effect. In this paper, we propose a signal that compensates for the distance-Doppler coupling effect to reduce the measurement error of the arrival time value. The proposed signal is constructed by superimposing two types of LFM signals, and the range-Doppler coupling effect can be minimized. Through simulations, it is confirmed that the proposed signal is a way to compensate for the distance-Doppler coupling effect in the distance estimation of underwater mobile bodies, reducing the measurement error of the arrival time value.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.21 no.2 s.75
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• pp.67-74
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• 2007

Maritime and Ocean Engineering Research Institute (MOERI), a branch of KORDI, has designed and manufactured a model of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) named ISiMI (Integrated Submergible for Intelligent Mission Implementation). ISiMI is an AUV platform to satisfy the various needs of experimental test required for development of challenging technologies newly investigated in the field of underwater robot; control and navigational algorithms and software architectures. The main design goal of ISiMI AUV is downsizing which will reduce substantially the operating cost compared to other vehicles previously developed in KORDI such as VORAM or DUSAUV. As a result of design and manufacturing process, ISiMI is implemented to be 1.2 m in length, 0.17 m in diameter and weigh 20 kg in air. A series of tank test is conducted to verify the basic functions of ISiMI in the Ocean Engineering Basin of MOERI, which includes manual control with R/F link, auto depth, auto heading control and a final approach control for underwater docking. This paper describes the implementation of ISiMI system and the experimental results to verify the function of ISiMI as a test-bed AUV platform.

• 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.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.2 s.63
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• pp.67-73
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• 2005

This paper describes depth, heading and speed control of an underwater vehicle that has four stern thrusters of which forces are coupled in the diving and, steering motion, as well as the speed of the vehicle. The optimal linear quadratic controller is designed based on a linearized- state space model, developed by combining the dynamic equations of speed, steering and diving motion. The designed controller gives provides an optimal thrust distribution, minimizing the given performance index to control speed, depth and heading simultaneously. To validate the performance of the controller, a simulation and tank-test are carried out with DUSAUV (Dual Use Semi-Autonomous Underwater Vehicle), developed by KORDI as a test-bed for testing new underwater technologies. Optimal gains of the controller are tuned, using a computer simulation environment with a nonlinear 6-DOF numerical DUSAUV model, developed by PMM (Planner Motion Mechanism) test. To verify the performance of the presented controller in experiment, a tank-test with DUSAUV is carried out in the ocean engineering basin in KORDI. The experimental results are also compared with the simulation results to investigate the accordance of the numerical and the real mode.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.347-350
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• 2006

Maritime and Ocean Engineering Research Institute (MOERI), a branch of KORDI, has designed and manufactured a model of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) named ISiMI(Integrated Submergible for Intelligent Mission Implementation). ISiMI is an AUV platform to satisfy the various needs of experimental test required for development of challenging technologies newly investigated in the field of underwater robot; control and navigational algorithms and software architectures. The main design goal of ISiMI AUV is downsizing which will reduce substantially the operating cost compared to other vehicles previously developed in KORDI such as VORAM or DUSAUV. As a result of design and manufacturing process, ISiMI is implemented to be 1.2m in length, 0.17m in diameter and weigh 20 kg in air. A series of tank test is conducted to verify the basic functions of ISiMI in the Ocean Engineering Basin of MOERI, which includes manual control with R/F link, auto depth, auto heading control and a final approach control for underwater docking. This paper describes the implementation of ISiMI system and the experimental results to verify the function of ISiMi as a test-bed AUV platform.

• 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.26 no.6
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• pp.464-473
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• 2022

In this paper, about a lightweight design that satisfies the performance of UHF-GPS Antenna used in autonomous underwater vehicle is proposed. Structural analysis, watertight external pressure test and non-destructive testing used in the design process are decided in consideration of structural safety for operating external forces in the underwater environment. First, the material of radome is selected for the performance of the UHF-GPS Antenna for communication with the carrier on the underwater operation in consideration of the 20 bar pressure generated. And the material of radome as PA-GF is selected by conducting electromagnetic field analysis and structural analysis and by considering high strength, rigidity and high dielectric constant. Electromagnetic field analysis and structural analysis by the thickness of radome are additionally performed in order to satisfy the required weight of UHF-GPS antenna. After selecting the final model, its structural safety is verified through watertight external pressure test and non-destructive testing.