Design and implementation of cooperative autonomous underwater vehicles for Antarctic exploration

Abstract

The present work describes the development of two collaborative Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) for Antarctic exploration to use them in the Ecuadorian Expeditions to the Scientific Base Pedro Vicente Maldonado in Antarctica. One vehicle is an AUV, called TAUV, with classical torpedo architecture, can work as a platform to transport scientific payload in a determined path in open waters. The TAUV length is 2m and diameter of 0.16m and has got three degree of freedom: pitch, yaw and surge. The vehicle achieves stable control with a set of three pairs of control planes. The other vehicle is an AUV, called HAUV, with Hybrid architecture that combines the best characteristics of the ROV and AUV, high stability in the water column, high maneuverability at low velocity without control planes and efficient hydrodynamics. The HAUV length is less than 1.50 m. The propulsion module is formed by four thrusters, three axial and one oriented vertically, this configuration gives to the HAUV three degrees of freedom: heave, surge and yaw. This vehicle can works as a ROV or an AUV. The hybrid configuration features the vehicle to explore dangerous areas near to the glacier wall. Three collaborative behaviors are discussed: formation flying, point inspection near to the glacier wall, replacement of a missing vehicle. Results of some systems of the TAUV and HAUV from laboratory, sea trials in tropical waters and Antarctic environment are show.

Fine-Scale Sea Ice Structure Characterized Using Underwater Acoustic Methods

“…Although AUV platforms have been used to map under the sea ice in limited studies [1,6] this research demonstrated the ability to conduct concise transects covering 12.42 hectares at very high spatial resolution (5 cm) and high degrees of precision (0.01 m drift) of this cryptic marine environment. Aside from mapping sea ice thickness we have uniquely resolved smooth ice from platelet ice at 5 cm resolution.…”

“…Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have been used in the Arctic since the 1970s, and increasingly in the Antarctic in recent years, to acoustically survey the geometric properties of the underside surface of sea ice [1][2][3][4][5]. There are various motivations that have initiated this research, including mapping sea ice thickness [6]; describing the roughness characteristics of the ice to determine wind and water drag coefficients for dynamical modeling [7]; and monitoring the transition of multiyear sea ice to first year sea ice [8].…”