Low-Altitude Terrain following and Collision Avoidance in a Flight-Class Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Abstract This paper reports on the execution of a combined chemical sensing/high-resolution terrain-following autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) survey to explore the fine structure and functional boundaries of the Santa Monica Basin suboxic zone and its relationship to topography. An AUV mapping vehicle is used in a novel configuration—combining the mapping vehicle tail section, with precision inertial navigation and acoustic communications systems, with CTD/O2, NO3 sensing, and Gulper water sampling systems. The challenge was to perform a long-distance near-bottom physical/chemical survey in deep water without any intermediate surfacing to disrupt the survey or require the vehicle to surface in areas of heavy ship traffic. Some 210 km of AUV cruise track at ≈10 m above bottom were accomplished during a 3-day survey. The dissolved oxygen concentration [O2] data are combined with temperature T, salinity S, and hydrostatic pressure P to produce maps of oxygen partial pressure pO2 that help define the limits at which the oceanic supply of O2 can match the O2 demands required to sustain various forms of marine life. The chemical NO3 sensing was included to define the critical pO2 boundary at which NO3 reduction occurs. The combination of a high-resolution terrain-following AUV with chemical sensors is important for a diverse array of investigations, including the study of vent sites, and for locating the source of chemical signals originating from the seafloor. The hypoxic basin example here permits better discrimination between general climate/circulation controls on hypoxia and more specific point-source-driven processes.

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Autonomous Underwater Vehicle “Tuna-Sand” for Image Observation of the Seafloor at a Low Altitude

Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics ◽

10.20965/jrm.2014.p0519 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 26 (4) ◽

pp. 519-521 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Yuya Nishida ◽

◽

Tamaki Ura ◽

Takeshi Nakatani ◽

Takashi Sakamaki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Complex Terrain ◽

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle ◽

Underwater Vehicle ◽

Exclusive Economic Zone ◽

Benthic Organisms ◽

Kagoshima Bay ◽

High Resolution Images ◽

Low Altitude ◽

Snow Crabs

<div class=""abs_img""><img src=""[disp_template_path]/JRM/abst-image/00260004/17.jpg"" width=""300"" />AUV Tuna-Sand</span></div> An autonomous underwater vehicle Tuna-Sand operating at a depth of 1,500 m to investigate benthic organisms was developed to observe detailed images of the seafloor. Once submerged, vehicle Tuna-Sand navigates several meters altitude above the seafloor with complex terrain using only onboard sensors and taking 2,000 high-resolution images of the seafloor before returning to the surface. Since its launch in March 2007, vehicle Tuna-Sand has performed underwater research 81 times in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, e.g., Kagoshima Bay, the Myojinsho caldera, and the Kuroshima knoll as of March 2014. Survey on the Joetsu knoll in the waters off of Niigata in July 2010 clarified the presence of live red snow crabs – a confirmation highly appreciated by fisheries researchers. An image-based photomosaic showed that 3,341 red snow crabs lived on the Joetsu knoll within an area of 800 m2. The authors are planning to survey the biomass of Kichiji rockfish in the Kitami-Yamato sea bank. </span>

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Architecture of Software for Biomimetic Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.817.104 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 817 ◽

pp. 104-110

Author(s):

Tomasz Praczyk

Keyword(s):

Research And Development ◽

Collision Avoidance ◽

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle ◽

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles ◽

Underwater Vehicle ◽

Underwater Vehicles ◽

Main Task ◽

Specialized Software ◽

Scientific Project

Autonomous underwater vehicles are vehicles that are entirely or partly independent of human decisions. In order to obtain operational independence, the vehicles have to be equipped with a specialized software. The main task of the software is to move the vehicle along a trajectory with collision avoidance. Moreover, the software has also to manage different devices installed on the vehicle board, e.g. to start and stop cameras, sonars etc. In addition to the software embedded on the vehicle board, the software responsible for managing the vehicle on the operator level is also necessary. Its task is to define mission of the vehicle, to start, stop the mission, to send emergency commands, to monitor vehicle parameters, and to control the vehicle in remotely operated mode.The paper presents architecture of the software designed for biomimetic autonomous underwater vehicle (BAUV) that is being constructed within the framework of the scientific project financed by Polish National Center of Research and Development.

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