Unmanned Underwater Vehicles: Advances and Applications

A special issue of Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (ISSN 2077-1312). This special issue belongs to the section "Ocean Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (16 August 2020) | Viewed by 15338

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Computer Science and Automatic Control, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: localization; control; sensor networks; marine vehicles; identification and modelling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
National Distance Education University (UNED), Department of Computer Science and Automatic Control, Madrid, Spain
Interests: nonlinear control; tracking; point stabilization and path following; under-actuated vehicles; machine vision; robotics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recent advances in miniaturized sensors, energy-efficient actuators, and low-cost embedded computer systems are impacting on the development of autonomous, remotely operated, and hybrid marine vehicles, making them ubiquitous in many scientific and commercial applications—which include marine habitat mapping, geotechnical surveying, inspection of critical infrastructures in the offshore energy and aquaculture industries, archaeologic surveying—or supportive of diverse human operations. The current technology is also enabling the operation of multiple marine vehicles working in cooperation by exploiting the availability of increasingly sophisticated technologies for underwater communication networks. This Special Issue is focused on collecting papers on the latest experiments, applications, advances, and challenges in Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (ROV, AUV, etc.). 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. David Moreno-Salinas
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dictino Chaos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • UUV guidance, navigation, and path planning
  • Control, Modelling, and Simulation
  • Underwater sensor networks
  • Underwater target localization and tracking
  • Cooperative Underwater Vehicles
  • Underwater sensing and SLAM
  • Machine Learning methods for Underwater Vehicles
  • Applications, case studies, field trials, and experimental results

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

29 pages, 14394 KiB  
Article
Modified LOS Path Following Strategy of a Portable Modular AUV Based on Lateral Movement
by Xiaoming Wang and Gaosheng Wu
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(9), 683; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8090683 - 04 Sep 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2432
Abstract
The portable modular AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle), named ZFAUV, has the ability to move laterally. Its turning radius becomes smaller as the forward speed decreases. Based on this special maneuverability, a modified LOS (line of sight) path following strategy, integrating basic LOS and [...] Read more.
The portable modular AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle), named ZFAUV, has the ability to move laterally. Its turning radius becomes smaller as the forward speed decreases. Based on this special maneuverability, a modified LOS (line of sight) path following strategy, integrating basic LOS and lateral movement, is proposed. The main idea of this strategy is to improve the path following performance through cross-track error and heading error. That is to say, the ZFAUV continues to move toward the current waypoint during a survey task. If ZFAUV deviates from the desired path due to disturbances from the wind, waves, current, or other uncertainties, it gradually returns to the desired path under lateral maneuverability. At the same time, in order to reduce overshoot after reaching the current waypoint, an arc transiting strategy and decelerating strategy (if necessary) are adopted. Through this strategy, the path following performance is greatly improved. Based on mathematical modeling, this strategy is simulated with a square path and a triangular path. The same paths are selected in lake experiments. The experimental results are in agreement with the simulation results, which demonstrate the validity of this strategy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Unmanned Underwater Vehicles: Advances and Applications)
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25 pages, 4171 KiB  
Article
Development of Deterministic Artificial Intelligence for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV)
by Timothy Sands
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(8), 578; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8080578 - 31 Jul 2020
Cited by 80 | Viewed by 8763
Abstract
The major premise of deterministic artificial intelligence (D.A.I.) is to assert deterministic self-awareness statements based in either the physics of the underlying problem or system identification to establish governing differential equations. The key distinction between D.A.I. and ubiquitous stochastic methods for artificial intelligence [...] Read more.
The major premise of deterministic artificial intelligence (D.A.I.) is to assert deterministic self-awareness statements based in either the physics of the underlying problem or system identification to establish governing differential equations. The key distinction between D.A.I. and ubiquitous stochastic methods for artificial intelligence is the adoption of first principles whenever able (in every instance available). One benefit of applying artificial intelligence principles over ubiquitous methods is the ease of the approach once the re-parameterization is derived, as done here. While the method is deterministic, researchers need only understand linear regression to understand the optimality of both self-awareness and learning. The approach necessitates full (autonomous) expression of a desired trajectory. Inspired by the exponential solution of ordinary differential equations and Euler’s expression of exponential solutions in terms of sinusoidal functions, desired trajectories will be formulated using such functions. Deterministic self-awareness statements, using the autonomous expression of desired trajectories with buoyancy control neglected, are asserted to control underwater vehicles in ideal cases only, while application to real-world deleterious effects is reserved for future study due to the length of this manuscript. In totality, the proposed methodology automates control and learning merely necessitating very simple user inputs, namely desired initial and final states and desired initial and final time, while tuning is eliminated completely. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Unmanned Underwater Vehicles: Advances and Applications)
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10 pages, 7010 KiB  
Article
Development of Broadband Underwater Radio Communication for Application in Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
by Igor Smolyaninov, Quirino Balzano and Dendy Young
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(5), 370; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8050370 - 23 May 2020
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3506
Abstract
This paper presents several novel designs of small form factor underwater radio antennas operating in the 2 MHz, 50 MHz and 2.4 GHz bands. These antennas efficiently excite surface electromagnetic waves (SEW) which propagate along the surface of seawater. The antenna operation is [...] Read more.
This paper presents several novel designs of small form factor underwater radio antennas operating in the 2 MHz, 50 MHz and 2.4 GHz bands. These antennas efficiently excite surface electromagnetic waves (SEW) which propagate along the surface of seawater. The antenna operation is made possible due to implementation of an impedance matching enclosure, which is filled with de-ionized water. Enhanced coupling to surface electromagnetic waves is enabled by the enhancement of the electromagnetic field at the antenna apex. These features allow us to make antenna dimensions considerably smaller compared to typical free space designs. They also considerably improve coupling of electromagnetic energy to the surrounding seawater. Since SEW propagation length is considerably larger than the skin depth in seawater, this technique is useful for underwater broadband wireless communication. We conclude that the developed broadband underwater radio communication technique will be useful in networking of unmanned underwater vehicles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Unmanned Underwater Vehicles: Advances and Applications)
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