Design and Analysis of an Underwater Vehicle for Controlled Gliding

摘要

In this paper we descrie the design an preliminary analysis of a small underwater vehicle built to demonstrate and test dynamics and ocntrol of under-water gliding. underwater glidin refers to motion in which prpulsion is provided by the force of gravity and steering is maintained by controllling the location of the center of gravity fo the vehicle. Vehicles tht perform underwater gliding are expected to be useful as cost-effective platforms for ocean sensing. Our experimental vehicle has an internal two-degree-of-freedom sliding mass that is positioned via radio control. The sliding mass will be used to switch between different glide paths to movethe vehicle as desired. We show how to compute the desired location of the center fo grvity of an underwater vehicle to produce desired glied motions and we investigate the stability o these motions as a function of a center of gravity parameter.