# Development of a Mobile Buoy with Controllable Wings: Design, Dynamics Analysis and Experiments
## 6 Conclusions and Future Work  
In this study, a novel mobile buoy is proposed, which has both vertical profiling kinematics similar to Argo profiling buoys and sawtooth gliding kinematics similar to underwater gliders by adjusting the wing rotation angle and net buoyancy mass. Considering the interplay between the mobile buoy and the fluid, a fluid-multibody coupled model is  
Figure 16: Photographic sequences of motion process in Glider mode with different net buoyancy mass during climbing phase, showing (a) \(m_{0}=0.3\), (b) \(m_{0}=0.4\) and (c) \(m_{0}=0.5\).  
Figure 15: Photographic sequences of motion process in Glider mode with different net buoyancy mass during diving phase, showing (a) \(m_{0}=0.3\), (b) \(m_{0}=0.4\) and (c) \(m_{0}=0.5\).  
developed to analyze the dynamic response. Numerical simulation results demonstrate the ability of the proposed mobile buoy to perform vertical profile movements and sawtooth gliding motions. Based on the above theoretical analysis, a scaled-down prototype of the mobile buoy was fabricated and fundamental experiments were conducted to investigate the performance of the two motion modes. The experimental results show good agreement with the numerical simulation, proving the feasibility of the proposed mobile buoy concept and fluid-multibody coupled analysis method.  
Although current research provides preliminary evidence of the feasibility of the mobile buoy, much remains to be carried out to make the mobile buoy practical for ocean observation. In the future, more attention needs to be paid to the optimization of the prototype and the design and improvement of hardware, such as battery packs, control systems and buoyancy regulation systems, enabling the achievement of stable motion mode switching during its underwater navigation. Sensors on the mobile buoy should also be explored and experiments in larger tanks should be conducted to more accurately monitor their energy consumption and movement. In addition, more elaborate hydrodynamic analysis of the mobile buoy, especially the wings and airfoil, is needed to optimize the design and improve the endurance of the mobile buoy.  
H.W. Conceptualization, project administration, writing--review and editing. J.C.: data curation, visualization, formal analysis, writing--original draft. Z.F.: methodology. G.D.: validation. Y.L.: software. C.T.: validation, supervision. Y.Z.: reviewing. C.H.: investigation. Z.C.: writing--review and editing, supervision, funding acquisition. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This work was supported by the Basic Research Center Program of NSFC [Grant Number 52088102]; the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [Grant number 2023M733340, 2023M743002, 2023 TQ0290]; the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [Grant Number 202313028]; the Shandong Province Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Number ZR2023 QE161]; the Special Funds of Taishan Scholars Project [Grant Number tsqn202306116].  
Not applicable.  
Data Availability Statement: Data are not publicly available.  
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.