Autonomous sampling of water columns using gliding robotic fish: Control algorithms and field experiments
Feitian Zhang, Osama En-Nasr, Elena Litchman, Xiaobo Tan
Abstract
Gliding robotic fish, a hybrid of underwater gliders and robotic fish, are energy-efficient and highly maneuverable, and hold strong promise for long-duration sampling of underwater environments. In this paper a novel systematic autonomous water-column-based sampling scheme for gliding robotic fish is proposed to measure the three-dimensional spatial distributions of variables of interest in aquatic environments. The scheme exploits energy-efficient spiral-down motion to sample each water column, followed by sagittal-plane glide-up towards the direction of next water column. Once surfacing, the robot uses GPS guidance to reach the next column location through swimming. To enhance the path tracking performance, a two-degree-of-freedom controller involving H∞ control is used in the spiral motion, and a sliding-mode controller is employed to regulate the yaw angle during glide-up. The sampling scheme has been implemented on a gliding robotic fish prototype, “Grace”, and verified first in pool experiments, and then in field experiments involving the sampling of harmful algae concentration in the Wintergreen Lake, Michigan.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{icra2015_autonomoussampli,
title = {Autonomous sampling of water columns using gliding robotic fish: Control algorithms and field experiments},
author = {Feitian Zhang and Osama En-Nasr and Elena Litchman and Xiaobo Tan},
booktitle = {ICRA 2015},
year = {2015}
}