Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Vision Based Tracking

Abstract

This paper describes about the design, construction and control of an “Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Vision Based Tracking”, built in Vignan’s Institute of Information Technology, Centre for Innovation Lab. The underwater vision robot is essentially an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for study of marine animals by automatically tracking and following them using computer vision. The AUV can also be used as a platform for Photo-mapping of the Seafloor using the onboard camera and light arrangement. The robot is proposed to have 5 thrusters configurations to achieve 4 degrees of freedom controlled by an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) interfaced with control unit and powered by commercial LiPo battery packs. The robot is equipped with roll, pitch, heading, and depth sensors which provide sufficient feedback signals to automatically control the vehicle to track a pre-planned trajectory. The centre of gravity and centre of buoyancy of the vehicle are positioned in such a way that it is self-stabilized. Along with this the combinations of sensors and speed control drivers provide more stability to the system using a closed loop control system, without the operator involvement.The AUV also captures videos during its mission using the camera. It is planned to have a multi-core umbilical cable for video signal, water leakage alarm, feedback signals and battery charging lines. This will be only used for development and test purposes and will be removed during autonomous missions. Various control schemes can be applied for the vehicle to track different paths. The AUV is designed to the dimension of 575×210×175mm.TheAUV uses O-rings for the hulls for good water sealing effect as well as for faster assembly and disassembly.We expect this AUV development to mature in to an advanced system can be used as a platform for study of the ocean by scientists, for environmental studies and for defense applications.