The authors are planning to realise three-dimensional multipoint and simultaneous measurement of ocean environment by swarm intelligent underwater vehicles. For this purpose, an ocean-going underwater glider with independently controllable main wings was developed and named ‘SOARER’. This paper deals with concept and detailed design of the SOARER glider.
We are now facing global environmental problems, the energy and food crises. The ocean, which covers over 70% of the earth's surface, has the enormous potential to resolve these problems. In recent years, various kinds of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are actively involved in the front lines of ocean researches. These underwater vehicles are usually operated alone or in a small group, and thus it is difficult to understand wide area ocean information. On the other hand, thousands of floating buoys such as ‘ARGO float’ are a useful means for the global-scale measurement, but such kind of floating buoy cannot control its measuring sea area. Underwater glider is one of the most useful underwater vehicles. Typical underwater has no propulsive machinery such as thrustor and it has a buoyancy control device and a kind of centre-of-mass shifting device. Arima et al. developed a test bed vehicle of the underwater glider with independently controllable main wings, which can control its angle of incidence of both main wings independently. They demonstrated this enables to realise high performance of motion. The authors are planning to develop an ocean-going underwater glider with independently controllable main wings for the application of widerange and long-term ocean environment monitoring. This paper deals with the concept and detailed design of such an underwater glider.
Underwater glider has the capability to cruise under water by controlling its buoyancy and attitude without any propulsive machinery.
