Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

The emergence of relatively inexpensive autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) has provided a tremendous boost to ocean sampling efforts in scientific, commercial and military disciplines. For example, they are the platform-of-choice for underwater mine countermeasures, they are being increasingly used in coastal and deep-sea oceanography, and off-shore oil field surveys. Princeton Satellite Systems (PSS) is working on online system identification and control synthesis for underactuated AUVs that are typically designed for minimizing energy expenditure and operating costs, for which advanced control methods are particularly relevant. The underwater glider is such an AUV platform, typically operated continuously for several weeks at a time. PSS staff have expertise designing nonlinear control laws for underwater gliders, and implementing cooperative control algorithms on fleets of underwater gliders.

See the movie of an underwater glider at Underwater Glider Simulation

References

1. P. Bhatta and N. E. Leonard, "Nonlinear gliding stability and control for vehicles with hydrodynamic forcing", (2008).
2. N.E. Leonard, P. Bhatta, D. A. Paley, R. Bachmayer and D. M. Fratantoni, "Multi-AUV control and adaptive sampling in Monterey Bay", IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, vol. 31, no. 4, pp 935-948 (2006)
3. R. Bachmayer,N. E. Leonard, P. Bhatta, E. Fiorelli and J. G. Graver, "Dynamics, control and coordination of underwater gliders", In Advances in Unmanned Marine Vehicles, edited by G. Roberts and R. Sutton, pp 407-432,