• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.16-25
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• 2021

Hydrodynamic coefficients should be accurately estimated to predict the maneuverability of underwater vehicles. Various captive model tests have been performed as part of estimation methods for these coefficients. Estimating hydrodynamic coefficients related to roll motion is important because underwater vehicles are sensitive to changes of roll moment. In this research, a pure roll motion equipment was newly designed to simply estimate hydrodynamic coefficients with respect to roll motion. Roll motion was implemented through a brief mechanical mechanism. The principle of operation, application process, and system identification of the equipment are described. An analysis method of the pure roll test is also suggested. Repeated tests of the newly equipment were carried out to check its reproducibility.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.335-339
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• 2005

The underwater positioning system is important in interpreting data that are acquired from towing vehicles such as the deep-sea camera (DSC) system. Currently, several acoustic positioning systems such as long baseline (LBL), short baseline (SBL), and ultra short baseline (USBL), are used for underwater positioning. The accurate position of DSC, however, could not be determined in a R/V Onnuri unequipped with any of these underwater positioning systems. As an alternative, the DSC position was estimated based on the topography of towing track and cable length in the cruises before 1999. The great uncertainties, however, were found in the areas of flat bottom topography. In the 2003 and 2004 cruises these uncertainties were reduced by calculating the position of DSC with the cable length and seafloor depth below the vessel. The Japanese cruises for Mn-nodule used a similar estimation method for the DSC positioning system with a CTD sensor. Although the latter can provide better information for the position of DSC, the USBL underwater positioning system is strongly recommended for establishing better positioning of DSC and other towing devices.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.892-901
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• 2020

We used a numerical method to estimate the hydrodynamic maneuvering derivatives for the heave-pitch coupling motion of an underwater glider. It is very important to assess the hydrodynamic maneuvering characteristics of a specific hull form of an underwater glider in the initial design stages. Although model tests are the best way to obtain the derivatives, numerical methods such as the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) method are used to save time and cost. The RANS method is widely used to estimate the maneuvering performance of surface-piercing marine vehicles, such as tankers and container ships. However, it is rarely applied to evaluate the maneuvering performance of underwater vehicles such as gliders. This paper presents numerical studies for typical experiments such as static drift and Planar Motion Mechanism (PMM) to estimate the hydrodynamic maneuvering derivatives for a Ray-type Underwater Glider (RUG). A validation study was first performed on a manta-type Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV), and the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) results were compared with a model test that was conducted at the Circular Water Channel (CWC) in Korea Maritime and Ocean University. Two different RANS solvers were used (Star-CCM+ and OpenFOAM), and the results were compared. The RUG's derivatives with both static drift and dynamic PMM (pure heave and pure pitch) are presented.

• 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 Positioning, Navigation, and Timing
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.67-73
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• 2023

As interest in underwater structures and ocean exploration increases, many researchers are proposing methods for modeling and controlling various remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Recently, hybrid systems composed of an autonomous underwater vehicle and an ROV capable of remote control and autonomous navigation are being developed. In this study we introduce a method that models Ariari-aROV, an ROV consisting of five thrusters, and performs navigation. The proposed ROV can be controlled manually and by autonomous navigation when given a target point. An extended Kalman filter is utilized for sensor measurement correction for more precise navigation. The proposed method is verified through a simulation.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2003

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are unmanned, underwater vessels that are used to investigate sea environments in the study of oceanography. 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 repented jobs at sea bed. This paper presents a visual :em control system used to dock an AUV into an underwater station. A camera mounted at the now center of the AUV is used to guide the AUV into dock. To create 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 deriver a state equation for the visual servo AUV. Further, 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 servo 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 the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.463-471
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• 2020

Recently, various tries to apply ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) into underwater are being developed. However, due to underwater environment uniqueness, the additional problem must be taken into account when designing an ROV for the inspection of the underwater structure. This is because a GPS-based information method cannot be applied, and the obtainable image is also dependent on the turbidity. Also, it is necessary to be able to satisfy waterproof and operating speeds in consideration of most practical application environments. This paper describes the design results of the ROV system for underwater structure inspection considering the above problems. The designed system applied INS / DVL for location recognition and was configured to support 3D mapping and stereo camera-based image information using sonar depending on visibility. To satisfy the waterproof, a pressure vessel using a composite material was applied. And over-actuated system using eight thrusters to maintain a stable posture and operating speed was applied also. The designed system was verified by structural analysis and flow analysis also.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.441-450
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• 2022

The introduction of autonomous underwater gliders (AUGs) specifically addresses the reduction of operational costs that were previously prohibited with conventional autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) using a "scaling-down" design philosophy by utilizing the characteristics of autonomous drifters to far extend operation duration and coverage. Long-duration, wide-area missions raise the cost and complexity of in-water testing for novel approaches to autonomous mission planning. As a result, a simulator that supports the rapid design, development, and testing of autonomy solutions across a wide range using software-in-the-loop simulation at faster-than-real-time speeds becomes critical. This paper describes a faster-than-real-time AUG simulator that can support high-resolution bathymetry for a wide variety of ocean environments, including ocean currents, various sensors, and vehicle dynamics. On top of the de facto standard ROS-Gazebo framework and open-sourced underwater vehicle simulation packages, features specific to AUGs for ocean mapping are developed. For vehicle dynamics, the next-generation hybrid autonomous underwater gliders (Hybrid-AUGs) operate with both the buoyancy engine and the thrusters to improve navigation for bathymetry mappings, e.g., line trajectory, are is implemented since because it can also describe conventional AUGs without the thrusters. The simulation results are validated with experiments while operating at 120 times faster than the real-time.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.32-40
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• 2022

Underwater optical images face various limitations that degrade the image quality compared with optical images taken in our atmosphere. Attenuation according to the wavelength of light and reflection by very small floating objects cause low contrast, blurry clarity, and color degradation in underwater images. We constructed an image data of the Korean sea and enhanced it by learning the characteristics of underwater images using the deep learning techniques of CycleGAN (cycle-consistent adversarial network), UGAN (underwater GAN), FUnIE-GAN (fast underwater image enhancement GAN). In addition, the underwater optical image was enhanced using the image processing technique of Image Fusion. For a quantitative performance comparison, UIQM (underwater image quality measure), which evaluates the performance of the enhancement in terms of colorfulness, sharpness, and contrast, and UCIQE (underwater color image quality evaluation), which evaluates the performance in terms of chroma, luminance, and saturation were calculated. For 100 underwater images taken in Korean seas, the average UIQMs of CycleGAN, UGAN, and FUnIE-GAN were 3.91, 3.42, and 2.66, respectively, and the average UCIQEs were measured to be 29.9, 26.77, and 22.88, respectively. The average UIQM and UCIQE of Image Fusion were 3.63 and 23.59, respectively. CycleGAN and UGAN qualitatively and quantitatively improved the image quality in various underwater environments, and FUnIE-GAN had performance differences depending on the underwater environment. Image Fusion showed good performance in terms of color correction and sharpness enhancement. It is expected that this method can be used for monitoring underwater works and the autonomous operation of unmanned vehicles by improving the visibility of underwater situations more accurately.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.81-86
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• 2012

Unmanned underwater vehicles have many applications in scientific, military, and commercial areas because of their autonomy. In many cases, an underwater vehicle adopts a control algorithm based on a tactical inertial sensor for precise control. However, a control algorithm that uses a tactical inertial sensor is unsuitable for some underwater vehicle missions such as torpedo decoys. This paper proposes a control algorithm for an unmanned underwater vehicle that does not require precise control. The control algorithm proposed for an unmanned underwater vehicle adopts a low cost MEMS inertial sensor, and simulations using the specifications of the MEMS inertial sensor under development are performed to verify the control algorithm under a real environment. The results of these simulations are presented.