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Design, Implementation, and Characterization of a Novel Positive Buoyancy Autonomous Vehicle

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Abstract

The unmanned surface vessel (USV) and the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) have become important means of ocean observation. In this paper, we have combined the characteristics of USV and AUV to design a hybrid energy positive buoyancy autonomous vehicle that satisfies requirements for water surface and underwater operations. The vehicle maintains positive buoyancy and underwater motion is achieved through thruster propulsion, inverted V rudder adjustment attitude, and using the lift generated by its wing to counteract the buoyancy force. Therefore, the vehicle does not need to carry a complicated variable buoyancy device, and the space saved can carry more energy or payload. The hybrid energy technology of solar batteries and lithium batteries will also be used to improve the endurance of the positive buoyancy autonomous vehicle. The main contributions of this article are new solutions to the challenges of combined water surface and underwater motions, the optimization design of the vehicle, the development of the required control algorithms, and the demonstration of the vehicle successfully surface sailing, entering, diving, underwater sailing, and exiting the water. The results of the lake test demonstrate that the positive buoyancy autonomous vehicle has desired motion performance, high safety, and strong adaptability to the environment.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings and results of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

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Funding

The work presented in this paper is financially supported by the Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Underwater Acoustic Antagonizing (grant number JCKY2020207CH03), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 41527901), and the project of the Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology (grant number 20dz1206600).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Zhiguang Wang, Hangyu Zhou, Zhaoyu Wei, Shuai Wei, Honglu Yun, Liyang Dong, Caoyang Yu, Baoheng Yao & Lian Lian

  2. School of Naval Architecture Ocean & Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240, Shanghai, China

    Zhiguang Wang & Liyang Dong

Authors
  1. Zhiguang Wang
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  2. Hangyu Zhou
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  9. Lian Lian
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Contributions

Zhiguang Wang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Visualization. Hangyu Zhou: Methodology, Data curation, Formal analysis. Zhaoyu Wei: Conceptualization, Supervision, Project administration. Shuai Wei: Investigation, Data curation. Honglu Yun: Data curation, Visualization. Liyang Dong: Investigation, Visualization. Caoyang Yu: review and editing. Baoheng Yao: review and editing, Supervision. Lian Lian: Supervision, Funding acquisition. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhaoyu Wei.

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Wang, Z., Zhou, H., Wei, Z. et al. Design, Implementation, and Characterization of a Novel Positive Buoyancy Autonomous Vehicle. J Intell Robot Syst 104, 62 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-022-01573-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-022-01573-9

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