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Underwater vehicles often use acoustics or dead reckoning for global positioning, which is impractical for low cost, high proximity applications. An optical based positional feedback system for a wave tank operated biomimetic station-keeping vehicle was made using an extended Kalman filter and a model of a nearby light source. After physical light model verification, the filter estimated surge, sway, and heading with 6 irradiance sensors and a low cost inertial measurement unit (~$15). Physical testing with video feedback suggests an average error of ~2cm in surge and sway, and ~3deg in yaw, over a 1200 cm2 operational area. This is 2-3 times better, and more consistent, than adaptations of prior art tested alongside the extended Kalman filter feedback system. The physical performance of the biomimetic platform was also tested. It has a repeatable forward velocity response with a max of 0.3 m/s and fair stability in surface testing conditions. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This project proposes the development of an autonomous underwater vehicle that can be used to perform underwater research missions..The vehicle can be pre-programmed to complete a specified mission. Missions may include underwater pipe inspection, a survey of the sea floor or just the transport of given sensors to a certain depth or position and take measurements of underwater conditions. The Mechatronics and Micro Manufacturing group at the CSIR is engaged in developing a portfolio of autonomous vehicles as well as fur- ther research into the development and implementation of such vehicles. Underwater vehicles will form part of the portfolio of autonomous vehicle research. Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are mostly used for research purposes in oceanographic studies as well as climate studies. These scientists use AUVs to carry a payload of sensors to specified depths and take measurements of underwater conditions, such as water temperature, water salinity or carbon levels as carbon is being released by plankton or other ocean organisms. Very little information is available about what is happening below the surface of the oceans and AUVs are being used to investigate this relatively unknown environment. The area covered by the world's ocean is 361 million km2 with an average depth of 3790 m. The deepest surveyed depth point in the ocean is at a depth of about 11 000 m at the southern end of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. This just shows the need for research into this mostly unexplored world. Research and exploration in the oceans can be achieved through the use of autonomous underwater vehicles. A big problem to overcome is the fact that GPS is not available for navigation in an underwater environment. Other sensors need to be found to be used for navigational purposes. The particular vehicle developed for this study will be used to facili- tate further research into underwater vehicle navigation and underwater robotics. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

This dissertation concerns the dynamics and control of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) which uses internal actuators to stabilize its horizontalplane motion. The demand for high-performance AUVs are growing in the field of ocean engineering due to increasing activities in ocean exploration and research. New generations of AUVs are expected to operate in harsh and complex ocean environments. We propose a hybrid design of an underwater vehicle which uses internal actuators instead of control surfaces to steer. When operating at low speeds or in relatively strong ocean currents, the performances of control surfaces will degrade. Internal actuators work independent of the relative ows, thus improving the maneuvering performance of the vehicle. We develop the mathematical model which describes the motion of an underwater vehicle in ocean currents from first principles. The equations of motion of a body-fluid dynamical system in an ideal fluid are derived using both Newton-Euler and Lagrangian formulations. The viscous effects of a real fluid are considered separately. We use a REMUS 100 AUV as the research model, and conduct CFD simulations to compute the viscous hydrodynamic coe cients with ANSYS Fluent. The simulation results show that the horizontal-plane motion of the vehicle is inherently unstable. The yaw moment exerted by the relative flow is destabilizing. The open-loop stabilities of the horizontal-plane motion of the vehicle in both ideal and real fluid are analyzed. In particular, the effects of a roll torque and a moving mass on the horizontal-plane motion are studied. The results illustrate that both the position and number of equilibrium points of the dynamical system are prone to the magnitude of the roll torque and the lateral position of the moving mass. We propose the design of using an internal moving mass to stabilize the horizontal-plane motion of the REMUS 100 AUV. A linear quadratic regulator (LQR) is designed to take advantage of both the linear momentum and lateral position of the internal moving mass to stabilize the heading angle of the vehicle. Alternatively, we introduce a tunnel thruster to the design, and use backstepping and Lyapunov redesign techniques to derive a nonlinear feedback control law to achieve autopilot. The coupling e ects between the closed-loop horizontal-plane and vertical-plane motions are also analyzed. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) depth control methods typically use a pressure sensor to measure the depth, which results in the AUV following the trajectory of the surface waves. Through simulations, a controller is designed for the Ocean Explorer AUV with the objective of the AUV holding a constant depth below the still water line while operating in waves. This objective is accomplished by modeling sensors and using filtering techniques to provide the AUV with the depth below the still water line. A wave prediction model is simulated to provide the controller with knowledge of the wave disturbance before it is encountered. The controller allows for depth keeping below the still water line with a standard deviation of 0.04 and 0.65 meters for wave amplitudes of 0.1-0.25 and 0.5-2 meters respectively and wave frequencies of 0.35-1.0 𝑟𝑎𝑑⁄𝑠𝑒𝑐, and the wave prediction improves the depth control on the order of 0.03 meters. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Acoustic networks of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) show great promise, but a lack of simulation tools and reliance on protocols originally developed for terrestrial radio networks has hindered progress. This work addresses both issues. A new simulator of underwater communication among AUVs provides accurate communication modeling and flexible vehicle behavior, while a new routing protocol, location-aware source routing (LASR) provides superior network performance. The new simulator was used to evaluate communication without networking, and then with networking using the coding or dynamic source routing (DSR) protocols. The results confirmed that a network was essential to ensure effective fleet-wide communication. The flooding protocol provided extremely reliable communication but with low message volumes. The DSR protocol, a popular routing protocol due to its effectiveness in terrestrial radio networks, proved to be a bad choice in an acoustic environment: in most cases, it suffered from both poor reliability and low message volumes. Due to the high acoustic latency, even moderate vehicle speeds caused the network topology to change faster than DSR could adapt. DSR's reliance on shortest-path routing also proved to be a significant disadvantage. Several DSR optimizations were also tested; most proved to be unhelpful or actually harmful in an underwater acoustic network. LASR was developed to address the problems noted in flooding and DSR. LASR was loosely derived from DSR, most significantly retaining source routes and the reply/request route discovery technique. However, LASR added features which proved, in simulation, to be significant advantages -- two of the most effective were a link/route metric and a node tracking system. To replace shortest-path routing, LASR used the expected transmission count (ETX) metric. / This allowed LASR to make more informed routing decisions which greatly increased performance compared to DSR. The node tracking system was the most novel addition: using only implicit communication coupled with the use of time-division multiple access (TDMA), the tracking system provided predicted node locations. These predictions made it possible for LASR to proactively respond to topology changes. In most cases, LASR outperformed flooding and DSR in message delivery reliability and message delivery volume. / by Edward A. Carlson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Controlling the cooperative behaviors of a fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles in a stochastic, complex environment is a formidable challenge in artificial intelligence. The complexity arises from the challenges of limited navigation and communication capabilities of underwater environment. A time critical cooperative operation by acoustic networks of Multiple Cooperative Vehicles (MCVs) necessitates a robust task allocation mechanism and an efficient path planning model. In this work, we present solutions to investigate two aspects of the cooperative schema for multiple underwater vehicles under realistic underwater acoustic communications: a Location-aided Task Allocation Framework (LAAF) algorithm for multi-target task assignment and a mathematical programming model, the Grid-based Multi-Objective Optimal Programming (GMOOP), for finding an optimal vehicle command decision given a set of objectives and constraints. We demonstrate that, the location-aided auction strategies perform significantly better than the generic auction algorithm in terms of effective task allocation time and information bandwidth requirements. In a typical task assignment scenario, the time needed in the LAAF algorithm is only a fraction compared to the generic auction algorithm. On the other hand; the GMOOP path planning technique provides a unique means for multi-objective tasks by cooperative agents with limited communication capabilities. Under different environmental settings, the GMOOP path planning technique is proved to provide a method with balance of sufficient expressive power and flexibility, and its solution algorithms tractable in terms of mission completion time, with a limited increase of overhead in acoustic communication. Prior to this work, existing multi-objective action selection methods were limited to robust networks where constant communication available. / The dynamic task allocation, together with the GMOOP path planning controller, provides a comprehensive solution to the search-classify tasks for cooperative AUVs. / by Yueyue Deng. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

As humans explore greater depths of Earth’s oceans, there is a growing need for the installation of subsea structures. 71% of the earth’s surface is ocean but there are limitations inherent in current detection instruments for marine applications leading to the need for the development of underwater platforms that allow research of deeper subsea areas. Several underwater platforms including Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs), and wave gliders enable more efficient deployment of marine structures. Deployable structures are able to be compacted and transported via AUV to their destination then morph into their final form upon arrival. They are a lightweight, compact solution. The wrapped package includes the deployable structure, underwater pump, and other necessary instruments, and the entire package is able to meet the payload capability requirements. Upon inflation, these structures can morph into final shapes that are a hundred times larger than their original volume, which extends the detection range and also provides long-term observation capabilities. This dissertation reviews underwater platforms, underwater acoustics, imaging sensors, and inflatable structure applications then proposes potential applications for the inflatable structures. Based on the proposed applications, a conceptual design of an underwater tubular structure is developed and initial prototypes are built for the study of the mechanics of inflatable tubes. Numerical approaches for the inflation process and bending loading are developed to predict the inflatable tubular behavior during the structure’s morphing process and under different loading conditions. The material properties are defined based on tensile tests. The numerical results are compared with and verified by experimental data. The methods used in this research provide a solution for underwater inflatable structure design and analysis. Several ocean morphing structures are proposed based on the inflatable tube analysis. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This thesis explores the feasibility of using morphing rudders in autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to improve their performance in complex current environments. The modeling vehicle in this work corresponds to the Florida Atlantic University's Ocean EXplorer (OEX) AUV. The AUV nonlinear dynamic model is limited to the horizontal plane and includes the effect of ocean current. The main contribution of this thesis is the use of active rudders to successfully achieve path keeping and station keeping of an AUV under the influence of unsteady current force. A constant ocean current superimposed with a sinusoidal component is considered. The vehicle's response is analyzed for a range of current frequencies. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

A supercavitating vehicle, a next-generation underwater vehicle capable of changing the paradigm of modern marine warfare, exploits supercavitation as a means to reduce drag and achieve extremely high submerged speeds. In supercavitating flows, a low-density gaseous cavity entirely envelops the vehicle and as a result the vehicle is in contact with liquid water only at its nose and partially over the afterbody. Hence, the vehicle experiences a substantially reduced skin drag and can achieve much higher speed than conventional vehicles. The development of a controllable and maneuvering supercavitating vehicle has been confronted with various challenging problems such as the potential instability of the vehicle, the unsteady nature of cavity dynamics, the complex and non-linear nature of the interaction between vehicle and cavity. Furthermore, major questions still need to be resolved regarding the basic configuration of the vehicle itself, including its control surfaces, the control system, and the cavity dynamics. In order to answer these fundamental questions, together with many similar ones, this dissertation develops an integrated simulation-based design tool to optimize the vehicle configuration subjected to operational design requirements, while predicting the complex coupled behavior of the vehicle for each design configuration. Particularly, this research attempts to include maneuvering flight as well as various operating trim conditions directly in the vehicle configurational optimization. This integrated approach provides significant improvement in performance in the preliminary design phase and indicates that trade-offs between various performance indexes are required due to their conflicting requirements. This dissertation also investigates trim conditions and dynamic characteristics of supercavitating vehicles through a full 6 DOF model. The influence of operating conditions, and cavity models and their memory effects on trim is analyzed and discussed. Unique characteristics are identified, e.g. the cavity memory effects introduce a favorable stabilizing effect by providing restoring fins and planing forces. Furthermore, this research investigates the flight envelope of a supercavitating vehicle, which is significantly different from that of a conventional vehicle due to different hydrodynamic coefficients as well as unique operational conditions.