Depth control of AUV using a buoyancy control device

Abstract

A new method for depth control was developed for a spilled oil and blow out gas tracking autonomous buoy robot called SOTAB-I by adjusting its buoyancy control device. It is aimed to work for any target depth. The new method relies on buoyancy variation model with depth that was established based on experimental data. The depth controller was verified at sea experiments in Toyama bay in Japan and showed good performance. The method could further be adapted to altitude control by combining the altitude data measured from bottom tracking through a progressive depth control. The method was verified by a simulating program and showed that the algorithm succeeded to bring the robot to the target altitude.