Design and Control of High Speed Unmanned Underwater Glider

Abstract

In this paper, an underwater glider (UG) has been studied and developed for observing the ocean environment. The design and control of a new underwater glider (UG) having a high horizontal speed of the maximum 2.5 (Knots) was studied. For this, the capacity of buoyancy engine which performs 2.5 (Knots) horizontal speed was designed. Also, a controllable buoyancy engine to regulate the amount of buoyancy was developed for control of the pitching angle of UG. The mass shifter carrying the battery was designed for controlling pitching and yawing motion of the UG and the control system to control them was constructed. A mathematical modeling based on six degree-of-freedom dynamics equation including the buoyancy engine and mass shifter dynamics was performed to find the optimal pitching angle of the UG for maximum speed. Using the mathematical model, a simulation representing the vertical and horizontal speed of the UG with respect to pitching angles is developed and is presented. A number of experiments was performed to verify the accuracy of the simulation and the performance of the developed UG.