• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.6-12
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• 2012

In this paper, addressed is the control problem of generating a formation for a group of unmanned surface and underwater vehicles. The formation control scheme proposed in this work is based on a fusion of theleader-follower and virtual reference approaches. This scheme gives a formation constraint representation that is independent of the number of vehicles in the formation and the resulting control algorithm is scalable. One of the most important features in controller design is the ability of the controller to globally and exponentially stabilize the formation errors defined by the formation constraints. The proposed controller is based on feedback linearization, and the formation errors are shown to be globally and exponentially stable in the sense of Lyapunov.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.70-78
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• 2020

Nitrox diving was introduced by the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to increase the oxygen content and lower the nitrogen content in respiratory gases. The commercial diving sector specializing in underwater operations has recently introduced regulations on the use of Nitrox. Because the respiratory gas for Nitrox diving has a lower nitrogen content than the normal air, the amount of nitrogen dissolved in the body is small, which not only significantly reduces the decompression time compared to air diving, but also reduces the chance of exposure to decompression sickness. In this study, we applied the VPM (Varying Permeability Model) algorithm to virtual diving with air and Nitrox as a respiratory gas, respectively, to study the optimal Nitrox diving for the safety at the underwater works. The results showed that Nitrox diving had a longer NDL (No-Decompression Limit), a much shorter depression time. In other words, Nitrox diving in underwater works is safer from decompression sickness than commonly used air diving.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2019

This study was designed to investigate the physiological response of humans to alcohol during underwater activity and to complete related risk analysis. After comparing human responses to alcohol during underwater activity, we analyzed physiological changes and risk level using a new risk analysis method developed in this study, 'Risk Assessment and Analysis (RAA)'. RAA is a modified method based on an internal control frame work. It has 3 steps, the first of which is to analyze risk correlation. The second step is to quantify risk and build a risk database. The last step is to analyze the diagramed risk map. Using RAA, the risk levels of alcohol use underwater were calculated and diagramed. The diagramed risk map was then used to analyze the difference between risk levels underwater before and after alcohol use. As a result, it was found that risk level underwater increased after alcohol use. This study shows alcohol use increases the ratio of high risk groups during underwater activity. It also indicates that risk levels can be quantified according to the likelihood and impairment scale, which can potentially help in identifying high risk groups for intensive management underwater.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.243-251
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• 2016

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) generally work in complex marine environments. Any fault in AUVs may cause significant losses. Thus, system reliability and automatic fault diagnosis are important. To address the actuator failure of AUVs, a fault diagnosis method based on the Gaussian particle filter is proposed in this study. Six free-space motion equation mathematical models are established in accordance with the actuator configuration of AUVs. The value of the control (moment) loss parameter is adopted on the basis of these models to represent underwater vehicle malfunction, and an actuator failure model is established. An improved Gaussian particle filtering algorithm is proposed and is used to estimate the AUV failure model and motion state. Bayes algorithm is employed to perform robot fault detection. The sliding window method is adopted for fault magnitude estimation. The feasibility and validity of the proposed method are verified through simulation experiments and experimental data.

• Journal of Advanced Research in Ocean Engineering
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.136-148
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• 2017

The paper presents dual arm ROV manipulation using deep reinforcement learning. The purpose of this underwater manipulator is to investigate and excavate natural resources in ocean, finding lost aircraft blackboxes and for performing other extremely dangerous tasks without endangering humans. This research work emphasizes on a self-learning approach using Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL). DRL technique allows ROV to learn the policy of performing manipulation task directly, from raw image data. Our proposed architecture maps the visual inputs (images) to control actions (output) and get reward after each action, which allows an agent to learn manipulation skill through trial and error method. We have trained our network in simulation. The raw images and rewards are directly provided by our simple Lua simulator. Our simulator achieve accuracy by considering underwater dynamic environmental conditions. Major goal of this research is to provide a smart self-learning way to achieve manipulation in highly dynamic underwater environment. The results showed that a dual robotic arm trained for a 3DOF movement successfully achieved target reaching task in a 2D space by considering real environmental factor.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.34-39
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• 2002

A Semi-Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (SAUV) capable of simple work at sea bed is under development in KRISO-KORDI. A pressure vessel of SAUV which is composed of FRP was manufactured to load electronic equipments. The objective of this paper is to verify the safety of the pressure vessel through conducting the structural analysis and test in pressure tank. Strain and stress under unit load were obtained by using ANSYS in the linear structural analysis. And local buckling analysis was performed with NASTRAN for the middle cylindrical hull. For the pressure test, strains were measured at three point. We found that the results by linear structural analysis and experiment are coincide well at the points where buckling does not occur. Maximum depth was estimated to be 250m by the local buckling analysis.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.18 no.4 s.59
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• pp.52-58
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• 2004

A Semi-Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (SAUV), capable of simple work on the seabed, is under development in KRISO-KORDI. This SAUV pressure vessel is composed of fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP), and is also manufactured to carry electronic equipment. The objective of this paper is to describe the safety check for the pressure vessel. This is achieved fly conducting structural analysis and testing in a pressure tank. Strain and stress test results, under unit load, are obtained fly using ANSYS in linear structural analysis. Local buckling analysis are performed with NASTRAN at the middle oj the cylindrical hull. The first test, using linear structural analysis, is unsuccessful, as buckling occurred. During the second test, linear structural analysis, combined with local buckling analysis, is conducted. There is no buckling up to 250 m when both ANSYS and NASTRAN are used.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.331-351
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• 2021

Underwater images are very much different from images taken on land, due to the presence of a higher disturbance ratio caused by the presence of water medium between the camera and the target object. These distortions and noises result in unclear details and reduced quality of the output image. An underwater image restoration method is proposed in this paper, which uses blurriness information, background light neutralization information, and red-light intensity to estimate depth. The transmission map is then estimated using the derived depth map, by considering separate attenuation coefficients for direct and backscattered signals. The estimated transmission map and estimated background light are then used to recover the scene radiance. Qualitative and quantitative analysis have been used to compare the performance of the proposed method against other state-of-the-art restoration methods. It has been shown that the proposed method can yield good quality restored underwater images. The proposed method has also been evaluated using different qualitative metrics, and results have shown that method is highly capable of restoring underwater images with different conditions. The results are significant and show the applicability of the proposed method for underwater image restoration work.

• 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.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.400-404
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• 2016

This paper presents experimental results for the vibration characteristics of the small unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) OPKO 300, which was designed and manufactured by Daewoo ship and Marine Engineering Ltd. The autonomy of UUVs has led to an increase in their use in scientific, military, and commercial areas because their autonomy makes it possible for UUVs to be utilized instead of humans in hazardous missions such as mine countermeasure missions (MCM). Since it is impossible to use devices based on electromagnetic waves to gather information in an underwater environment, only sonar systems, which use sound waves, can be used in underwater environments, and their performance can strongly affect the autonomy of a UUV. Since a thruster system, which combines a motor and propeller in a single structure, is widely used as the propulsion system of a UUV and is mounted on the outside of a UUV’s stern, it can generate vibration, which can be transferred throughout the shell of the UUV from its stern to its bow. The transferred vibration can affect the performance of various sonar systems such as side-scan sonar or forward-looking sonar. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate the effect of the transferred vibration of the UUV on the sonar systems. Even if various numerical methods were used to analyze the vibration problem of a UUV, it would be hard to predict the vibration phenomena of a UUV at the initial design stage. In this work, an experimental study using OKPO 300 and an impact hammer was carried out to analyze the vibration feature of a small real UUV in the air. The frequency response function of the vibration based on the experimental results is presented.