Composite adaptive control of astable UUVs

Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) typically operate in uncertain and changing environments. Globally convergent Lyapunov-based parameter-adaptive controllers for six-degree-of-freedom position and attitude trajectory-tracking control of astable UUVs have been successfully derived and applied. We propose an efficient adaptive-control scheme for UUVs based on existing parameter-adaptation schemes popular in the robotics literature. Specifically, we customize bounded-gain-forgetting composite adaptation, which utilizes information about both the tracking and model-prediction errors to yield faster parameter convergence than the traditional tracking-error-based (TEB) adaptation. Hence, better transient behavior of tracking errors is achieved by using fewer control efforts in most cases. We show the effectiveness of applying the suggested adaptation scheme on UUVs through simulation.     

基于海洋环境的AUG探测应用方法探讨

水下滑翔机(AUG)是正在开发的 UUV 品种之一,其在海洋中作为探测器运用是一个技术方法问题。 针对未来将出现的大携载能力环境探测滑翔机,在分析海洋环境和被探目标以及 AUG 技术特性基础上,预先探讨了未来应用方式及试验方法,研究了基于海洋与目标环境的区域航路导引、目标预示区、隐蔽探测、卫星通讯等应用方法,进行了典型状态试验方法仿真分析,可为相关试验研究提供参考。     

多水下机器人系统水动力计算的多线程实现

介绍多水下机器人(UUV)数字仿真平台的硬件结构以及单体UUV和多UUV系统的水动力计算流程,在此基础上利用Windows多线程技术实现多UUV的水动力计算,该方法已经用于多UUV数字仿真平台虚拟环境节点的设计中.系统仿真实验表明该方法设计的应用程序具有良好的执行效率和实时响应能力,为以后多UUV半物理仿真平台的水动力计算和实体多UUV系统水动力系数的验证奠定了基础.     

基于可重置联邦滤波器的水下运载体导航定位方法

单一导航系统无法满足水下运载体高精度、高可靠性的导航需求,文中根据常用水下导航系统的特点,提出基于可重置联邦滤波器的水下运载体导航定位方案,设计了以惯导系统(INS)为主参考系统,声学定位系统/深度计、多普勒计程仪(DVL)、罗经为子参考系统的联邦滤波器,并进行了仿真研究。结果表明文中设计的滤波器能有效融合各个传感器的导航信息,实现水下运载体高精度导航定位,并具有一定容错性。     

Bistatic synthetic aperture imaging of proud and buried targets from an AUV

The use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for the detection of buried mines is an area of current interest to the Mine CounterMeasures (MCM) community. AUVs offer the advantages of lower cost, stealth, reduced operator risk, and potentially improved coverage rates over more traditional mine hunters. However, AUVs also come with their own set of difficulties, including significant error in navigation and low communication rates with the mother platform and each other. In the case of bistatic detection scenarios, AUVs will therefore have difficulty knowing where exactly in space they are and the trigger time of sources on other platforms, be they ships or other AUVs. However, the potential improvement in detection and coverage rates offered by bistatic sonar concepts makes resolution of these issues a high priority. In this paper, the problems of inaccurate navigation and source timing information are addressed for the Generic Oceanographic Array Technology data set. In this experiment, conducted off Marciana Marina during June 1998, a MIT AUV with a SACLANTCEN acoustic array and acquisition system was used together with a TOPAS parametric sonar to explore issues of buried target detection using AUVs. In this paper, solutions to the navigation and timing problems are proposed which enable the effective use of bistatic synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) concepts for the detection of buried objects in the mid-frequency regime of 2-20 kHz.     

Experimental Study of a Command Governor Adaptive Depth Controller for an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle

Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) are increasingly being used in advanced applications that require them to operate in tandem with human divers and around underwater infrastructure and other vehicles. These applications require precise control of the UUVs which is challenging due to the non-linear and time varying nature of the hydrodynamic forces, presence of external disturbances, uncertainties and unexpected changes that can occur within the UUV’s operating environment. Adaptive control has been identified as a promising solution to achieve desired control within such dynamic environments. Nevertheless, adaptive control in its basic form, such as Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) has a trade-off between the adaptation rate and transient performance. Even though, higher adaptation rates produce better performance they can lead to instabilities and actuator fatigue due to high frequency oscillations in the control signal. Command Governor Adaptive Control (CGAC) is a possible solution to achieve better transient performance at low adaptation rates. In this study CGAC has been experimentally validated for depth control of a UUV, which is a unique challenge due to the unavailability of full state measurement and a greater thrust requirement. These in turn leads to additional noise from state estimation, time-delays from input noise filters, higher energy expenditure and susceptibility to saturation. Experimental results show that CGAC is more robust against noise and time-delays and has lower energy expenditure and thruster saturation. In addition, CGAC offers better tracking, disturbance rejection and tolerance to partial thruster failure compared to the MRAC.     

An integrated multi-sensor data fusion algorithm and autopilot implementation in an uninhabited surface craft

Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) are able to accomplish difficult and challenging tasks both in civilian and defence sectors without endangering human lives. Their ability to work round the clock makes them well-suited for matters that demand immediate attention. These issues include but not limited to mines countermeasures, measuring the extent of an oil spill and locating the source of a chemical discharge. A number of USV programmes have emerged in the last decade for a variety of aforementioned purposes. Springer USV is one such research project highlighted in this paper. The intention herein is to report results emanating from data acquired from experiments on the Springer vessel whilst testing its advanced navigation, guidance and control (NGC) subsystems. The algorithms developed for these systems are based on soft-computing methodologies. A novel form of data fusion navigation algorithm has been developed and integrated with a modified optimal controller. Experimental results are presented and analysed for various scenarios including single and multiple waypoints tracking and fixed and time-varying reference bearings. It is demonstrated that the proposed NGC system provides promising results despite the presence of modelling uncertainty and external disturbances.     

GPS模糊度逆整乔列斯基降相关算法的改进

在详细阐述逆整乔列斯基算法的基础上,提出以最小谱条件数为终止迭代过程的准则,通过对方差-协方差阵的对角线元素进行升序调整来改进逆整乔列斯基算法。以谱条件数和相关系数为评判准则,对逆整乔列斯基算法和改进的逆整乔列斯基算法进行仿真比较和分析,结果表明,改进的逆整乔列斯基算法能更大幅度地降低模糊度向量间的相关性,减小方差-协方差阵的谱条件数。     

Fòlaga: A low-cost autonomous underwater vehicle combining glider and AUV capabilities

The paper describes the current developments of a class of low-cost, light-weight autonomous underwater vehicles for coastal oceanographic applications; the vehicle class is named Fòlaga, the Italian name of an aquatic bird that swims on the water surface and dives to catch fish. The main design characteristics of the most recent vehicle of the class, the Fòlaga III, are reviewed. Navigation and control system design are discussed, with particular attention to the diving phase, which is accomplished as in oceanographic gliders by varying the vehicle buoyancy and attitude. Experimental results show that the PID robust controllers implemented are effective in the diving control phase. Finally, a distributed cooperation algorithm to be applied by a team of Fòlaga-like vehicles in adaptive oceanographic sampling applications is described. The algorithm optimizes area coverage while taking into account the accuracy in the reconstruction of the oceanographic field and inter-vehicle communication through a range constraint. The resulting dynamic programming algorithm can be implemented in a distributed fashion among the team components.     

Radar-based collision avoidance for unmanned surface vehicles

Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) have become a focus of research because of their extensive applications. To ensure safety and reliability and to perform complex tasks autonomously, USVs are required to possess accurate perception of the environment and effective collision avoidance capabilities. To achieve these, investigation into realtime marine radar target detection and autonomous collision avoidance technologies is required, aiming at solving the problems of noise jamming, uneven brightness, target loss, and blind areas in marine radar images. These technologies should also satisfy the requirements of real-time and reliability related to high navigation speeds of USVs. Therefore, this study developed an embedded collision avoidance system based on the marine radar, investigated a highly real-time target detection method which contains adaptive smoothing algorithm and robust segmentation algorithm, developed a stable and reliable dynamic local environment model to ensure the safety of USV navigation, and constructed a collision avoidance algorithm based on velocity obstacle (V-obstacle) which adjusts the USV’s heading and speed in real-time. Sea trials results in multi-obstacle avoidance firstly demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed avoidance system, and then verify its great adaptability and relative stability when a USV sailing in a real and complex marine environment. The obtained results will improve the intelligent level of USV and guarantee the safety of USV independent sailing.     

深海ARV在海洋资源调查中的应用及展望

深海自主/遥控式水下机器人（ARV）作为新兴的复合型水下机器人,融合了自主式水下机器人的灵活性和遥控式水下机器人的人机交互性等优势,开启了自主与遥控混合作业的新模式。深海ARV可切换为AUV自主航行模式,独立采集周边区域近海底地形地貌、地质结构以及环境参数等数据,也能下潜至目标区域后切换为ROV遥控模式进行局部观察和采样操作,其探测作业一体化技术代表了具备复杂使命执行力的第三代深海水下机器人的发展方向。通过分析国内外深海混合型水下机器人的发展现状,结合ARV在中国深海矿产资源调查中的主要应用案例和取得的成果,以6000米级 “问海一号”ARV系统的研发为例,给出其关键技术集成以及面对的技术挑战,并对未来深海ARV的应用场景、功能集成和发展方向提出了一些设想和建议。     

重力辅助匹配惯性导航系统研究

常规的航位推算方法无法满足水下潜器长时间工作的导航要求,惯导设备的定位误差随时间积累,重力异常数据和重力梯度数据进行匹配辅助导航可以连续的对惯性导航系统积累误差进行校正。 文章介绍了利用重力辅助惯导的思想和原理,对重力辅助惯性导航进行了讨论,建立包含重力异常/ 重力梯度数据的 Kalman 滤波算法,并采用改进的 ICCP 算法对重力异常匹配导航进行了模拟试算,结果表明在现有的技术条件下,重力辅助匹配导航能够胜任水下航行的工作任务,保证长航时的水下定位精度。     

Parallel trajectory planning for shipborne Autonomous collision avoidance system

Collision at sea is always a significant issue affecting the safety of ship navigation. The shipborne autonomous collision avoidance system (SACAS) has the great advantage to minimize collision accidents in ship navigation. A parallel trajectory planning architecture is proposed in this paper for SACAS system. The fully-coupled deliberative planner based on the modified RRT algorithm is developed to search for optimal global trajectory in a low re-planning frequency. The fully-coupled reactive planner based on the modified DW algorithm is developed to generate the optimal local trajectory in a high re-planning frequency to counteract the unexpected behavior of dynamic obstacles in the vicinity of the vessel. The obstacle constraints, ship maneuvering constraints, COLREGs rules, trajectory optimality, and real-time requirements are satisfied simultaneously in both global and local planning to ensure the collision-free optimal navigation in compliance with COLREGs rules. The on-water tests of a trimaran model equipped with a model-scale SACAS system are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm. The good balance between the computational efficiency and trajectory optimality is achieved in parallel trajectory planning.     

20kg级便携式自主水下机器人(AUV)设计与实现

便携式AUV具有结构紧凑、机动性好、制造和使用成本低等优点,本文设计AUV的底层控制系统和自主导航系统,并进行仿真验证和人工湖试验,结果证明底层控制系统具有很好的鲁棒性,基于AHRS、数字罗盘和GPS的惯性导航算法能够通过浅水节点潜航方式实现AUV自主导航。     

东太平洋多金属结核的叠层石包壳及其沉积环境意义

对东太平洋C-C区深海多金属结核的叠层石包壳、多金属结核的表面类型及其分布规律进行了详细研究和合理解释,认为叠层石的形态学特征既是建造叠层石的微生物种类差异的表现,也是环境水动力条件和溶解氧含量不同的反映,这些因素共同决定了多金属结核的表面类型,而南极底流是造成海底水体能量环境、氧化还原电位和微生物种类变化的根本原因.为多金属结核的分布规律和成矿预测提供科学依据.     

A study of increasing the precision of navigation position for submerged body

Currently, most submerged bodies use the long-baseline acoustic position system (LBL) to identify the navigation position for submerging. A precise navigation position is always the target pursued by underwater technology. The conventional long-baseline acoustic position systems normally use Kalman filter correction to handle the problem of positional errors. This article proposes a new modification, which is based on the periodically measured actual navigation distance, and associated with the three-dimensional geometrical relations between the transponder on the seabed and the navigation distance. This new modification employs the iterative approximation to modify the errors of the measured navigation position from the conventional long-baseline acoustic position system. In order to verify the availability of the modified model by the essay, the study uses the navigation position for an underwater surveying submerged body as the study object. After the numerical simulation analysis, the result shows that the modification was presented by the article can only use very few iterations to precisely modify the errors of the measured navigation position from the conventional long-baseline acoustic position system, which is highly applicable for positioning in long-term and long-distance submersion. Moreover, the modification method proposed by the paper can also help submersion positioning for the underwater vehicle, as well as the military submerged body.     

基于动态海洋环境要素的航行风险评估方法研究

海洋气象环境复杂多变,船舶航行风险随时间演变具有较高的不确定性.本文从时空分析的角度出发,动态评估船舶的航行风险:选择风场、海流、海浪、海温等4种动态因素和海雾发生频率、海底地形等2种静态因素作为评估因子,使用层次分析法(analytic hierarchy process,AHP)计算各评估因子的权重,在此基础上,利...     

基于长基线系统深海采矿ROV精确定位

对于深海采矿集矿机ROV的定位,采用传统的长基线水声定位系统通常存在较大误差。对此提出了一种新的算法模型,首先通过比较集矿机测量位置与前一次修正位置的几何关系,对当前集矿机的位置进行修正,然后利用新的集矿机位置修正声速的数值,并得出重新修正后的集矿机测量位置。这样反复的多重迭代使得在某一时刻集矿机ROV的测量位置逐步趋近其理想位置,实现长基线系统的水声精确的三维立体定位。通过数值仿真分析,结果显示与传统的长基线水声定位方法相比,通过该方法获得的集矿机行驶轨迹能更好地趋近其理想行驶曲线,表明该算法的有效性。     

The Development of a Biologically Inspired Propulsor for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

Fish are remarkable in their ability to maneuver and to control their body position. This ability is the result of the coordinated movement of fins which extend from the body and form control surfaces that can create and vector forces in 3-D. We have embarked on a research program designed to develop a maneuvering propulsor for unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) that is based on the pectoral fin of the bluegill sunfish. For this, the anatomy, kinematics, and hydrodynamics of the sunfish pectoral fin were investigated experimentally and through the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. These studies identified that the kinematics of the sunfish pectoral fin are very complex and are not easily described by traditional ldquorowingrdquo- and ldquoflappingrdquo-type kinematics. A consequence of the complex motion is that the pectoral fin can produce forward thrust during both its outstroke (abduction) and instroke (adduction), and while doing so generates only small lateral and lift forces. The results of the biological studies were used to guide the design of robotic pectoral fins which were built as experimental devices and used to investigate the mechanisms of thrust production and control. Because of a design that was based heavily on the anatomy of the sunfish fin, the robotic pectoral fins had the level of control and degrees of freedom necessary to reproduce many of the complex fin motions used by the sunfish during steady swimming. These robotic fins are excellent experimental tools, and are an important first step towards developing propulsive devices that will give the next generation of UUVs the ability to produce and control thrust like highly maneuverable fish.     

基于倒置声学基阵的INSUSBL组合导航算法研究

文中关注水下潜航器导航定位时,电磁波传播途径中能量衰减、惯导系统长航时积累误差以及提高水下潜航器定位精度等问题。基于倒置的超短基线声学基阵,分析声波往返传播时间(RTT)、平面波近似方法和USBL导航解算方法及其坐标转换过程,结合INS误差方程,建立INS/USBL松组合模型。为进一步提高系统精度、动态性能和抗干扰性,考察USBL的原始斜距、斜距差以及声学基阵的空间分布信息,提出基于USBL原始输出信息的INS/USBL紧耦合组合导航方法。通过MATLAB仿真对导航算法进行验证,结果表明两种算法能充分抑制纯惯导误差随时间积累问题,且有效地估计出姿态、速度和位置误差角;其中紧耦合方法状态估计误差最小,导航参数精度相对松组合提高30%以上,对于提高水下载体导航定位精度、海洋探测具有重大意义。