A conceptual design study of a hovering system controller for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
By: Chris A. Thompson
Contributors: Healey, Anthony J.
Publisher: Naval Postgraduate School; Available from National Technical Information Service
Published: 1987
Place of publication: Monterey, Calif; Springfield, Va
Language: eng
Number of pages: 72
Subjects: Mechanical engineering
Description: An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) will have many operational scenarios that will include a transition from cruise to hover over a fixed position in the ocean. While hovering, the AUV must be able to balance the current induced forces a difficult task to accomplish automatically. The magnitude of these forces induced on an example AUV have been estimated for currents from 4 m/s to 1 m/s with the incident current varying from 0 deg to 360 deg. Using the estimated forces, different configurations of thrusters were investigated and the power required for different thruster configurations compared. Three thrusters (two longitudinal, one lateral) can balance the forces exactly and a unique solution was evaluated. With redundant thrusters, more economical schemes can developed using force allocation logic with minimum norm solutions. System horsepower requirements have been estimated and a conceptual model based controller methodology has been proposed. The force allocation logic proposed will now allow for a smooth transition from cruise to hover mode positions. Keywords: Theses; Stationkeeping.
Notes: Thesis advisor, Anthony J. Healey.

"December 1987."

DTIC Descriptor(s): Hovering, Stationkeeping, Underwater Vehicles, Control Systems, Configurations, Control, Horsepower, Oceans, Position (Location), Redundancy, Scenarios, Theses, Thrusters, Transitions Hovering, Stationkeeping, Underwater Vehicles, Control Systems, Configurations, Control, Horsepower, Oceans, Position (Location), Redundancy, Scenarios, Theses, Thrusters, Transitions.

DTIC Indicator(s): Autonomous vehicles, Autonomous underwater vehicles.

Author(s) subject terms: Control, Submarine, Hovering, Stationkeeping Underwater Vehicel.

Title on documentation page: A conceptual design study of a hovering system controller for an Underwater Vehicle.

Thesis (M.S. in Mechanical Engineering) Naval Postgraduate School, Dec. 1987.

Includes bibliographical references.

"Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited--Cover."

Also available online.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Adobe Acrobat Reader.

US Navy (USN) author.

c.1, c.2

dk/. original 9/23/09