Depth-Trim Mapping Control of Underwater Vehicle with Fins

Underwater vehicle plays an important role in ocean engineering. Depth control by fin is one of the difficulties for underwater vehicle in motion control. Depth control is indirect due to the freedom coupling between trim and axial motion. It includes the method of dynamic analysis and lift-resistance-coefficient experiment and theory algorithm. By considering the current speed and depth deviation, comprehensive interpretation is used in object-planning instruction. Expected depth is transformed into expected trim. Dynamic output fluctuation can be avoided, which is caused by linear mapping of deviation. It is steady and accurate for the motion of controlled underwater vehicles. The feasibility and efficiency of the control method are testified in the pool and natural area for experiments.

Locomotion and Depth Control of Robotic Fish with Modular Undulating Fins

This paper presents an environmental-friendly robotic system mimicking the undulating fins of a fish.To mimic the actual flexible fin of real fish,a fin-like mechanism with a series of connecting linkages is modeled and attached to the robotic fish,by virtue of a specially designed strip.Each link is able to turn and slide with respect to the adjacent link.These driving linkages are then used to form a mechanical fin consisting of several fin segments,which are able to produce undulations,similar to those produced by the actual fish fins.Owing to the modular and re-configurable design of the mechanical fin,we are able to construct biomimetic robotic fish with various swimming modes by fin undulations.Some qualitative and workspace observations by experiments of the robotic fish are shown and discussed.

Depth Control for AUV Based on RS-LSSVM

Aimed at uncertainties and model's impreciseness, nonlinearity and time-variability of depth control system in autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), a depth predictive control method was put forward based on rough set (RS) and least squares support vector machine (LSSVM). By using RS theory, the monitor data attribute of AUV was reduced to eliminate the redundant information and to improve efficiency. Then, LSSVM model was trained by using the reduced rules, and its parameters were optimized by using chaos theory for the higher accurate control. Taken an AUV typed NPS Phoenix as an example, its depth step response, horizontal rudder and pitch change were simulated. The simulation results show that the method improves the model's accuracy and has better real-time response, fault-tolerant ability, reliability and strong anti-interfere capability.

Design of depth-control planting unit with single-side gauge wheel for no-till maize precision planter

No-till planters are very popular for maize seeding in fields covered with residue in annual wheat-maize double cropping system in North China Plain.However,there is no suitable depth control mechanism for existing no-till maize planters,and as a result,it is hard to obtain consistent planting depth,uniform emergence,and good passing ability at the same time.For the above reasons,a proper planting unit with a new type of depth-control mechanism was developed in this study.The mechanism consists of a single-side gauge wheel,a parallel four-bar linkage,a pair of double-disc opener,a V-shape press wheel and a depth regulator,which can adjust the planting depth from 30 mm to 90 mm to satisfy the agronomic requirement under different field conditions.Based on analysis and calculation,the width of gauge wheel was set to 50 mm while the length of parallel four-bar linkage was set to 350 mm.Field experiment was conducted and the results indicated that the newly designed planting unit with single-side gauge wheel performed well with regard to planting depth uniformity and anti-blocking ability.The planting depth uniformity and seed spacing quality were 95.45%and 91.90%,respectively,when the average height of stubble was 22.5 cm and residue amount was 0.64 kg/m^(2)in the field.It can satisfy the requirement of no-till maize planting on the cropland with residue and stubble in North China Plain.

T-S Fuzzy Model-Based Depth Control of Underwater Vehicles

A T-S fuzzy model with two rules is established to exactly describe the nonlinear uncertain heave dynamics of underwater vehicles with bounded heave speed.A single linear-matrix-inequality-based (LMI-based) state feedback controller is then synthesized to guarantee the global stability of the depth control system.Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach in comparison with linear-quadratic regulator (LQR) method.Nonlinear disturbance observer is appended to the system when the underwater vehicles are affected by the gravity-buoyancy imbalance.The two-stage control method is effective to stabilize an uncertain system with both parameter uncertainties and external disturbances.