Analysis of landing strategies and influencing factors of an autonomous underwater vehicle

The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) studied in this paper can land and rest on the seafloor using a mooring system. In order to analyze its landing strategies and influencing factors, kinematics and dynamics models of three-dimensional motion of the AUV are established. Forces’ mathematic models of variable buoyancy system and vertical thrusters are developed and control algorithm of vertical thrusters is designed. Based on the above-mentioned models, landing simulation system is built using S-function of Matlab. Two kinds of landing strategies of the AUV with mooring system are proposed, i.e., diving freely under the effect of negative buoyancy and landing under the control of vertical thrusters. On these bases, the effects of mass and position of the water entering into the AUV on landing parameters are analyzed. Finally, the influences of vertical thrusters on landing process are discussed through comparing the two landing strategies.