PrOceedingS of the 2003 IEEBRSJ Inn. Conference w1 intelligent Robots and Systems Las Veaas. Nevada October 2003 Design of a Prototype Miniature Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Aditya S. Gadre Jared J . Mach Daniel J . Stilwell Carl E . Wick The Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Virginia Polytechni c Inst itu te and St at e Unive rsi ty Systems Engineering Department United States Naval Academy Bla cksb urg, VA 24061 {agadre, jmach, stilwell}@ut.edu, Abstmct- Platoons of cooperating autonomous underwa- ter vehicles have the potential to contribute significantly to scientific investigations in the marine environment. Pla- toon s of vehicles can survey large areas, adaptively track and measure timevarying processes such as tidal fronts and al- gal blooms, and they ar e robust to single-point failures. We have developed a prototype miniature low-cost autonomous underwater vehicle to address the platform requirements of these missions. The vehicle is designed as a test-bed for the development of distributed control and estimation al- gorithms, an d for experiments in advanced navigation an d control. I . INTRODUCTION Plat oons o f cooperating autonomous vehicles hav e signif- icant and well-know advantag es over single vehicles oper- ating independently. Cooperating vehicles can rapidly sur- vey large areas, they can survey in four dimensions (space and time), and they are robust to single point failures. It is also hypothesized that the individual vehicles in a pla- toon o f cooperating vehicles could be less expensive and less sophisticated than vehicles designed to operate inde- pendently. Most research on multiple cooperating vehicles is con- ducted using terrestrial vehicles. Yet the marine and ocean science communities would benefit significantly from suc- cessf ul use of cooperating underwater vehicles. Potenti al applicat ions include su rveying chemica l plumes, mapping oceanographic processes (e.g., tidal front), and mapping bi- ological populations. For underwater vehicle applications, the complexity and cost of deployments with multiple un - derwater vehicles is a major factor limiting experimental activities. To facilitate experiments with platoons of coop erating autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), we have embarked on a program to develop a miniature low-cost AUV that operates robustly in the fi eld . Our prototy pe miniature AUV is described herein. Oth er small AUVs, such as REMUS [I] and Ranger (2 1 could be utilized for multi-vehicle research, but their costs and/ or infrastructure requir ements are prohibitive. At a cost of less than $3,000 in parts, the prototype AUV de- scribed herein is dramatically less expensive than currently D. J. Stilweli gratefully acknowledges the support of the Na - tional Science Found ation via grant IIS0238092, Office of Naval Re- search via grant N00014-03-1-0444, nd the Woodrow W. Everett, Jr . SCEEE Development Fund in cooperation with the Southeastern Consortium of Electrical Engineering Mueatom. Annapolis, MD 21402 wicL&hsn,a. edu available AUVs. Th e challenges o f acqui ring an d deploying a platoon of AUV s are t he principle motivation fo r developing th e AUV described herein. These challenges are exemplifie d b y the very limited literature of reported experiments with pla- toons of underwa ter vehicles. A notabl e exception was de- scribed in (31. Leader-follower control was demonstrated using Odyssey vehicles with a modifie d ultra-short baseline transponder on the lead vehicle. Though the control algo- rithm for the follower vehicles was somewhat a d hoc, the system displayed significant robustness. In 141, the devel- opment of a ne w auto nomo us underwater vehicle designed for laboratory experiments with platoons of vehicles is de- scribed. Field operations where multiple AUVs operate in th e same area, but are otherwise uncoordinated, have also been reported [Si, 6 1 . . , . , ... - I . . ' . j . . - . ... . Fig. 1 . filly assembled A W . Fig. 2. Hull and nose removed. 11. A MlNiATURE AUV Th e principal goals of our miniature AUV design effort is to produ ce a vehic le tha t is small, inexpe nsive, easy to deploy, and yet fully functional as a platform for marine
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8/2/2019 Design of a Prototype Miniature Autonomous
PrOceedingS of the 2003 IEEBRSJInn.Conference w1 intelligent Robots and Systems
Las Veaas. Nevada October2003
Design of a Prototyp e Miniature AutonomousUnderwater Vehicle
Adi tya S. Gadre Jared J. Mach Daniel J. Stilwell Carl E. Wick
The Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer EngineeringVirginia Polytechnic Inst itute and State University
Systems Engineering DepartmentUnited States Naval Academy
Blacksburg, VA 24061
{agadre, jmach, stilwell}@ut.edu,
Abstmct- Platoons of cooperating autonomous underwa-
ter vehicles have the potential to contribute significantly
to scientific investigations in the marine environment. Pla-toon s of vehicles can survey large areas, adaptively track and
measure timevarying processes such as tidal fronts and al-
gal blooms, and they ar e robust to single-point failures. We
have developed a prototype miniature low-cost autonomous
underwater vehicle to address the platform requirements ofthese missions. The vehicle is designed as a test-bed for
the development of distributed control and estimation al-gorithms, and for experiments in advanced navigation andcontrol.
I. INTRODUCTION
Platoons of cooperating autonomous vehicles have signif-
icant and well-know advantages over single vehicles oper-
ating independently. Cooperating vehicles can rapidly sur-
vey large areas, they can survey in four dimensions (space
and time), and they are robust to single point failures. Itis also hypothesized that the individual vehicles in a pla-
toon of cooperating vehicles could be less expensive andless sophisticated than vehicles designed to operate inde-
pendently.
Most research on multiple cooperating vehicles is con-
ducted using terrestrial vehicles. Yet the marine and ocean
science communities would benefit significantly from suc-
cessful use of cooperating underwater vehicles. Potential
applications include surveying chemical plumes, mapping
oceanographic processes (e.g., tidal front), and mapping bi-
ological populations. For underwater vehicle applications,
the complexity and cost of deployments with multiple un-
derwater vehicles is a major factor limiting experimental
activities. To facilitate experiments with platoons ofc o o perating autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), we have
embarked on a program to develop a miniature low-cost
AUV tha t operates robustly in the field. Our prototype
miniature AUV is described herein.Other small AUVs, such as REMUS [I] and Ranger (21
could be utilized for multi-vehicle research, but their costs
and/or infrastructure requirements are prohibitive. At a
cost of less than $3,000 in parts, the prototype AUV de-
scribed herein is dramatically less expensive than currently
D. J. Stilweli gratefully acknowledges the support of the Na -tional Science Foundation via grant IIS0238092, Office of Naval Re-search via grant N00014-03-1-0444,nd the Woodrow W. Everett,Jr . SCEEE Development Fund in cooperation with the SoutheasternConsortium of Electrical Engineering Mueatom.
Annapolis, MD 21402
wicL&hsn,a. edu
available AUVs.
The challenges of acquiring and deploying a platoon of
AUVs are the principle motivation for developing the AUV
described herein. These challenges are exemplified by the
very limited literature of reported experiments with pla-
toons of underwater vehicles. A notable exception was de-
scribed in (31. Leader-follower control was demonstrated
using Odyssey vehicles with a modified ultra-short baselinetransponder on the lead vehicle. Though the control algo-
rithm for the follower vehicles was somewhat ad hoc, the
system displayed significant robustness. In 141, the devel-
opment of a new autonomous underwater vehicle designed
for laboratory experiments with platoons of vehicles is de-
scribed. Field operations where multiple AUVs operate in
the same area, but are otherwise uncoordinated, have also
been reported [Si, 61.
. , . , ... -I ..
' . j
. . - . ... .
Fig. 1 . filly assembled A W .
Fig. 2. Hull and nose removed.
11. A MlNiATURE AUV
The principal goals of our miniature AUV design effort
is to produce a vehicle that is small, inexpensive, easy to
deploy, and yet fully functional as a platform for marine
hide for complex 3-D sensing,” in Proceedings of he IEEE/MTS
OCEANS, pp. 2043-2045, 2001.
131 H. Singh, J . Catipovic, R. Eastwood, L. Freitag, H. Henricksen,F. Hover, D. Yaerger, J. Bellingham, and B. Moran, “An inte-grated approach to multiple AUV communications, navigation,and docking,” in Proceedings of IEEE/MTS Oceans, (FortLaud.erdale, Florida), pp. 59-64, September 1996.
141 R. Bachmeyer and N. Leonard, “A test-bed for multi AUV exper-iments,” in Proceedings of the the 1Oh International Symposium
on Unmanned Untethered Submersible Technology, (Durham,Ne w Hampshire), August 2001.