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The MONSUN Underwater Robot designed for applications like environmental monitoring tasks in a swarm. It has a small size with a length of 60 cm and a diameter of 10 cm, which makes it easy to handle by one person.
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This paper presents the development of the new hard-and software architecture of the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle MONSUN, designed to perform underwater environmental monitoring and inspection tasks in a swarm. The design concept is based on modularity and robustness, augmented with a powerful embedded controller and a ROS-based software architect...
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This article presents a robust stabilizing control for nonholonomic underwater systems that are affected by uncertainties. The methodology is based on adaptive integral sliding mode control. Firstly, the original underwater system is transformed in a way that the new system has uncertainties in matched form. A change of coordinates is carried out f...
Citations
... The applications of these vehicles vary, but most of them aim at improving underwater operations without risking human lives. There are subsea vehicles employed for heavy-duty tasks [2][3][4], others for inspection in aquaculture collecting data of both environment and fish [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], others who collaborate in swarms to carry out specific tasks while exchanging information [15][16][17][18][19], others collaborating with humans underwater [20,21], and others that move like fish and substitute fins for thrusters [22][23][24][25]. These vehicles are equipped with sensors to acquire the orientation, speed, and depth. ...
In fish farms, a major issue is the net cage wear, resulting in fish escapes and negative impact on fish quality, due to holes and biofouling of the nets. To minimize fish losses, fisheries utilize divers to inspect net cages on a weekly basis. Aquaculture companies are looking for ways to maximize profit, and reducing maintenance costs is one of them. Kefalonia Fisheries spend 250,000 euros yearly on diver expenses for net cages maintenance. This work is about the design, fabrication, and control of an inexpensive autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) intended for inspection in net cages at Kefalonia Fisheries S.A. in Greece. Its main body is 3D printed, and its eight-thruster configuration grants it six degrees-of-freedom. The main objective of the vehicle is to limit maintenance costs by increasing inspection frequency. The design, fabrication, electronic components, and software architecture of the AUV are presented. In addition, the forces affecting kalypso, mobility realization, navigation, and modeling are quoted along with a flow simulation and the experimental results. The proposed design is adaptable and durable while remaining cost-effective, and it can be used for both manual and automatic operations.
... Some ROVs are designed for heavy-duty operations [3], [4], while others are used for inspection at fish farms collecting data [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Furthermore, there are ROVs that collaborate in swarms to perform certain tasks while exchanging information [23][24][25][26][27] and others that are moving like fish, using fins rather than thrusters to employ their propulsion [28], [29]. These vehicles employ sensors to acquire their velocity, orientation and depth. ...
... Both versions are intended for applications in swarms. Likewise, "Monsun I -II" are intended to work together in swarms to conduct inspections and monitor the marine environment while operating underwater [25], [26]. "Sembio" is a compact, energy efficient AUV which is 3D-printed and uses six thrusters to operate [27]. ...
A significant challenge in fish farms is net cage deterioration, which leads to fish escapes owing to holes and can have a severe influence on the fish's health due to biofouling. To reduce fish losses, divers are utilized on a weekly basis by fisheries to carry out the task of inspecting the net cages. Companies that are involved in aquaculture are always seeking for methods to increase their profits, and one of those ways is to cut down on the costs of maintenance. This paper is about the development of an unmanned underwater vehicle used for inspection in net cages at Kefalonia Fisheries in Greece. This vehicle has a 3D-printed body and a six-thruster configuration, featuring five degrees of freedom. The vehicle's primary goal is to reduce divers' expenses by conducting inspections more frequently. In this work, the design, manufacture, and control are presented along with the experimental results and flow simulation of the vehicle. The suggested design is versatile and robust while yet being affordable, and the fisheries may easily adopt it due to its inexpensive price and simplicity of operation.
... The applications of ROVs vary and the designs change depending on the respective needs. There are ROVs that are used on heavy operations, like moving heavy objects [1], others that are collaborating in swarms on specific tasks, exchanging data among them [2][3][4][5][6], and others that use fins instead of thrusters or move like fishes underwater. Coupled with sensors, the pilot can operate the vehicle in harsh environments, knowing its orientation, speed, depth, etc. ...
... It has similar design as its predecessor using four thrusters at cross-shape. Similarly, "Monsun" [4][5] was designed to perform inspection operations and underwater environmental supervision in a swarm. Its conceptual design is relying on modularity by reducing the exertion to fabricate, and robustness by enhancing the sealing. ...
This paper introduces the conception, design, fabrication, and control of a modular remotely operated underwater vehicle. It is an affordable submarine robot intended for inspection operations in shallow depths. It has a 3D-Printed hull, and it can be adjusted according to the respective needs. It is equipped with six thrusters which allow it to have five Degrees of Freedom enabling increased maneuverability while it operates. The robot has marginally positive buoyancy which allows it to emerge in case of a malfunction, and the fins attached to the motors enhance its stability. The design, development, and construction as well as the components and electronics of the vehicle are presented. Moreover, the forces acting on the ROV and the buoyancy are introduced, along with the motion generation of the motors. The IMU sensor calibration is explained and a dataset of the rotational movement was analyzed into 3 axes. The proposed design features low cost, customizability and sturdiness allowing the user to configure and operate by himself.
... This paper describes the use of MONSUN AUV swarms for quay wall inspections. The robots are small in size (about 80 cm long with a diameter of about 10 cm) and capable to operate in swarms to fulfil the desired mission [7], [8]. For inspections of quay walls, they are equipped with a BlueView M900-2250 dual frequency multibeam sonar and thus take high-resolution pictures of their surroundings. ...
... In addition to these specialized µAUVs, a number of general purpose vehicles with a focus on high customization have been developed in recent years. Examples include MONSUN [7] and Bluefin SandShark [8], which achieve adaptability to various requirements with exchangeable extension kits [9] and a large user-defined payload volume, respectively. However, apart from the commercial Bluefin SandShark, none of these µAUVs are openly available. ...
... In the MoSAIk project, MONSUN shall e.g. be used for monitoring tasks in harbours in case of water pollution by oil or chemicals [12,13,14]. In contrast to SEMBIO, the hull was built in a traditionally torpedo-shaped form and no hydrodynamical analyses were performed. ...
This paper presents an approach of system identification of the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) SEMBIO leading to a sliding mode depth controller for precise underwater movements. A dynamic model has been derived, including static nonlinearities induced by the brushless motors of the thrusters. This leads to advantages in comparison to common PID controllers eliminating effects of non-rotating thrusters due to small computed control variables. Different experiments under realistic conditions and resulting behaviors proving this statement are presented.
... Furthermore, fast reaction times and high spatial resolution are needed, making the deployment of a single sensing device also infeasible. To fulfill these requirements, the usage of small and low-cost autonomous underwater vehicles (µAUVs) such as MONSUN [5] or HippoCampus [4] is advisable. A length of less than 1 m enables the usage in narrow places and agile navigation. ...
A variety of underwater monitoring tasks, such as localization of pollution sources, measuring of water quality and inspection of sheet pilings can be facilitated by the use of small and cheap micro AUVs. To set the measurements in a spatial context a robust and precise self-localization of every robot is required. In this paper, we show that a cheap and small acoustic modem is everything you need for a position estimation with an error in the sub meter range.
... systems are not suitable for shallow water bodies due to large scale factors and limited maneuverability. To overcome this limitations, the Institute of Computer Engineering of the University of Lübeck has developed the MONSUN underwater robot, a small, flexible, and modular AUV for various underwater inspection tasks [7]. The robot is actuated with six brushless motors, four of them placed vertically at the robot's fins for posture and depth control and two of them placed in the middle of the robot for movements in the horizontal plane. ...
This paper presents a robust acoustic-based communication principle for the localization and navigation of an underwater robot swarm in featureless environments. With the help of acoustic modems and two robots at the surface with available GPS positions, a number of various submerged autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) can be navigated to fulfill different tasks in underwater inspection and monitoring in a V-shaped formation. The principle was implemented using MONSUN underwater robots and tested under real conditions in a shallow waterbody.
... To meet the mentioned requirements, the MONSUN AUVs designed by the University of Lübeck were used and further developed for this mission. The robot has a modular design and is thus adaptable to a large field of tasks in environmental monitoring and inspection missions [7]. The swarm-capable MONSUN robot is with a length of 80 cm small in size and able to follow trajectories autonomously on its own or in a team. ...
This paper presents an approach using small and swarm-capable autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) as flexible measurement devices for observing oceanic submesoscale eddies. The robots equipped with environmental sensors are placed near interesting oceanographic structures to measure the water column along different trajectories. The robots communicate acoustically while diving in a saw tooth pattern underneath the surface. This measurement strategy enables high-resolution sensor data on the one hand and a fast reaction to changing conditions in the observed region on the other hand.
... The MONSUN AUV is built in a modular forward-looking way to be used in a large number of possible tasks in the field of environmental monitoring. With a comparably small size of 60 cm in length and a diameter of 10 cm, it features high agility and manoeuvrability due to six brushless motors [7]. The ROS-based software architecture is structured in three layers to implement different robot behaviours on the one hand and to enable a higher level of cooperation between the robots on the other hand. ...
This paper presents an approach to perform comprehensive in situ environmental measurements in shallow wa-terbodies with the help of a swarm of small and flexible autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). To perform simultaneous measurements at different locations, the mission is automatically subdivided amongst the robots using a rule-based robot control architecture and special heuristics depending on internal robot states. This allows a significantly larger coverage of CTD measurements reducing costs on the one hand and minimizing the overall mission times on the other hand.
