Controlling Long-range, Intelligent Autonomous Underwater Vehicles for Ocean Science Research
Understanding the ocean is critical if we are to begin to effectively address the range of environmental problems we currently face. Yet we know very little about the ocean, in large part due to it being extremely inhospitable to long-term human presence. The best hope for gathering information abou...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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1994
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.51.7488 http://cdps.umcs.maine.edu/Papers/1994/env/env.ps |
| Summary: | Understanding the ocean is critical if we are to begin to effectively address the range of environmental problems we currently face. Yet we know very little about the ocean, in large part due to it being extremely inhospitable to long-term human presence. The best hope for gathering information about the ocean environment is the development of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), especially long-range AUVs, that can function as our avatars in the ocean. AUVs that can remain on-site for long periods of time can function analogously to satellites; these "underwater satellites" will be able to gather large amounts of information about the ocean at a relatively low cost-per-byte. However, long-range AUVs require control software of a daunting level of intelligence. In this paper, we discuss the issues involved in designing an intelligent controller for a long-range AUV. We then describe Orca, one such controller currently under construction in our laboratory. When complete, Orca will be . |
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