Tracking an underwater target

Autonomous underwater vehicles are becoming an important part in marine research. In order to help bring down the cost of running a research mission with an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), the method of tracking the AUV can be improved. An autonomous surface vessel (ASV), equipped with both acoustic instrumentation and wireless or radio communication technology, can successfully track the AUV and interface with scientists. An ASV named RoBoat, built at MIT in undergraduate classes using a kayak hull, is vessel that can be controlled remotely. To help RoBoat become fully autonomous, a program must be created to take in the data from the underwater acoustic sensors and output commands that the kayak can follow. This thesis studies the homing rules that govern the kayak, under realistic tracking scenarios. The kayak dynamics were modeled and the response to several AUV paths was simulated. The simulation uses many of the kayak properties to be able to create a model that can be used with this specific ASV. The AUV is modeled as a single point target and follows four different common trajectories: a straight line, a line with a delayed start, a simple turn and a lawnmower configuration.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Gomez, Christina, S.B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Franz S. Hover.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/40421

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/40421