Multi-body modelling and analysis of the motion platform for underwater acoustic dynamic communication

Abstract

With the development of marine science, the dynamic underwater acoustic network composed of many underwater and surface nodes has become an active research field of information science. The network in this study mainly involves the underwater gliders integrating underwater acoustic transducers and the wave glider carrying an ultra-short baseline positioning system. The attitude change of the underwater glider during zigzag profiling changes the beam pointing of the underwater acoustic transducer, which may lead to communication failure in the network. To deal with this problem, a motion platform for integrating an underwater acoustic transducer is proposed to be installed on the underwater glider. This work first integrates an underwater glider and a wave glider into a multi-body model by taking underwater acoustic signals as the media to illustrate the kinematics of the proposed motion platform. According to screw theory, the motion platform needs at least two rotational degrees of freedom to follow the ultra-short baseline positioning system. According to the bend of the sound ray, the motion angles of the motion platform are modified, and the motion platform controller is designed. The simulation results show that the controller can keep the underwater acoustic transducer tracking and pointing to the ultra-short baseline positioning system during communication when the underwater glider and wave glider move freely.