Tail-Enabled Spiraling Maneuver for Gliding Robotic Fish

Abstract

Gliding robotic fish, a new type of underwater robot, combines both strengths of underwater gliders and robotic fish, featuring long operation duration and high maneuverability. In this paper, we present both analytical and experimental results on a novel gliding motion, tail-enabled three-dimensional (3D) spiraling, which is well suited for sampling a water column. A dynamic model of a gliding robotic fish with a deflected tail is first established. The equations for the relative equilibria corresponding to steady-state spiraling are derived and then solved recursively using Newton's method. The region of convergence for Newton's method is examined numerically. We then establish the local asymptotic stability of the computed equilibria through Jacobian analysis and further numerically explore the basins of attraction. Experiments have been conducted on a fish-shaped miniature underwater glider with a deflected tail, where a gliding-induced 3D spiraling maneuver is confirmed. Furthermore, consistent with model predictions, experimental results have shown that the achievable turning radius of the spiraling can be as small as less than 0.4 m, demonstrating the high maneuverability.

Effective Turning Motion Control of Internally Actuated Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

“…Spiraling motion of gliders is a steady state glide motion in three dimensions and has been studied extensively in [23] and [22]. We utilize a modified version of the previously mentioned formulation to account for the ROUGHIE's improved roll mechanism.…”

“…To the best of the authors' knowledge, the ROUGHIE is the most maneuverable internally actuated underwater glider, capable of a turn radius down to 2.4 meters for a 1.2 meter vehicle in 3 meters depth of water [13,25]. The ROUGHIE's 2.4 meter turn radius is an order of magnitude improvement over the typical 30-50 meter turn radii for internally actuated underwater gliders [6,10,22]. The roll mechanism and control architecture developed for the ROUGHIE can also be extended to The remainder of this paper discusses the ROUGHIE design overview in Section 2, kinematic analysis in Section 3, control development in Section 4, results in Section 5, and conclusions and future work in Section 6.…”

“…A series of numerical and analytical studies on UG maneuverability investigate steady turn solutions using stability and performance analysis [8,12,22,23].…”

A space-saving steering method for underwater gliders in lake monitoring

“…A hybrid-driven underwater glider developed by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) was equipped with independently controllable wings and rudder to achieve good maneuverability (Isa and Arshad, 2011). A hybrid gliding robotic fish reduced the steering radius (Zhang et al, 2014). Though gliders with rudders or thrusters have enhanced maneuverability, they may encounter some problems with long-term lake monitoring.…”

“…Zhang et al (2013) modeled the spiraling motion with a recursive algorithm. Zhang et al (2014) quantified the spiraling motion of a gliding robotic fish under a pitch angle from −32.3° to 70.8°. Cao et al (2015) calculated the hydrodynamic coefficients for an attack angle from −10° to 10° and analyzed the steering process under a pitch angle of 48°.…”