Development of the AUV ‘ISiMI’ and a free running test in an Ocean Engineering Basin

The Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI) has developed a small AUV named ISiMI. The mission of ISiMI is to work as a test-bed AUV for the development and validation of various algorithms and instruments required to enhance the AUV's functions. The design concept of ISiMI is that of a vehicle small enough to cruise the Ocean Engineering Basin (OEB) of KORDI and to be handled by one or two people. The downsized design and the cruising ability in its tank enable fast experimental feedback on AUV technologies and a shorter development period for new technologies. This paper presents a review of our research work on the development of ISiMI, with a performance evaluation by simulation and an experimental test. After the design and implementation of ISiMI, including its positioning system in the OEB, are presented, a series of test results in the OEB and discussions of the results are presented, with comparisons of the simulation and experimental outputs.