Abstract
The underwater glider (UG) is one of the powerful tools for ocean observation and exploration, and the multi-UG formation helps improve the observation scope and increase the mission efficiency. In this study, a new method for constructing the multi-UG formation is proposed based on virtual hinges of multibody system. UGs in the formation are linked in series by virtual hinges, with a topology like a chain or robotic arm. The proposed formation method precisely regards the underwater gliders as rigid bodies to realize position and attitude coordination. Instead of considering all underwater gliders in the formation simultaneously, each glider in the formation only considers the adjacent underwater gliders during opeartion. The communication topology of the multi-UG formation compensates for the short communication distance of underwater acoustic communication. The stability of multi-UG model is considered and verified by analyzing the system energy. The synchronization, reconfiguration and scalability of the multi-UG formation are simulated, proving that the proposed formation method is effective and has good formation reconfiguration and scalability.
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