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Mechanical Structure
MARES'
mechanical structure follows a highly modular approach,
with a central hull and several aditional sections.
Since all sections are mechanical
extensions, they can be easily interchanged and it is
very simple to insert new sections.
Propulsion and direction are controlled
by two independent horizontal thrusters.
Another set of thrusters, in the vertical
direction, control vertical velocity and pitch angle.
The thruster arrangement permits
operations in very confined areas, with virtually
independent horizontal and vertical motion at velocities
starting at 0 m/s.
Electrical Components
The electronic circuits are located in
the centrall hull. Energy is
provided by Li-Ion batteries, with a total
energy of 600 Wh.
Depending on vehicle velocity, these batteries can last
up to 10 hours, corresponding to about 40km.
The main
computer is a PC-104 stack, with a power supply, the CPU,
a communications board and a solid-state disk.
The
navigation system is based on a LBL
acoustic network. The vehicle software continuously fuses
ranges to the acoustic beacons, together with compass heading and
thruster RPM to compute the estimated position.
Payload Sensors
MARES has limited
room to accomodate payload, but
it is simple to include additional sections and the
main hull has several spare connectors to provide energy
and communications.
Larger payload sensors may also be attached to the
outside of the hull.
Mission Programming and Supervision
Before AUV launch, 2 acoustic beacons (typically 2
NIBs) are deployed in the
operation area.
MARES missions are programmed using a
GUI software, where all mission segments are detailed (waypoints,
velocity, depth, ...)
During
the mission, the acoustic beacons transmit vehicle location data to
a support vessel, so that the AUV
trajectory can be followed in
real time.
At the
end, the vehicle starts
transmitting her own position by radio,
when at the surface.
(>>
animation of NIB deployment and MARES mission, 5MB,
courtesy B'lizzard Ltd.)
Selected Publications
Aníbal Matos, Nuno Cruz, "MARES
- Navigation, Control and On-board Software",
in Underwater Vehicles, A. Inzartsev (ed.), ISBN
978-953-7619-49-7, In-Tech, Austria, 2009.
Bruno Ferreira, Miguel Pinto, Aníbal
C. Matos, Nuno A. Cruz, "Control
of the MARES Autonomous Underwater Vehicle", Proceedings of the MTS-IEEE Conference
Oceans'2009, Biloxi, MS, October 2009.
Bruno Ferreira, Miguel Pinto, Aníbal
C. Matos, Nuno A. Cruz, "Modeling
and Motion Analysis of the MARES Autonomous Underwater
Vehicle", Proceedings of the MTS-IEEE Conference
Oceans'2009, Biloxi, MS, October 2009.
Nuno Cruz, Aníbal Matos, "The
MARES AUV, a Modular Autonomous Robot for Environment
Sampling",
Proceedings of the MTS-IEEE Conference Oceans'2008,
Quebec, Canada, September 2008.
Nuno Santos, Aníbal
Matos, Nuno Cruz, "Navigation
of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle in a Mobile Network",
Proceedings of the MTS-IEEE Conference Oceans'2008,
Quebec, Canada, September 2008.
Patrícia Ramos, Sandra Carvalho, "Foz
do Arelho Outfall Plume Predictive Study", Proceedings of the MTS-IEEE Conference Oceans'2008,
Quebec, Canada, September 2008.
Aníbal Matos, Nuno Cruz, "Coordinated
Operation of Autonomous Underwater and Surface Vehicles",
Proceedings of the MTS-IEEE Conference Oceans'2007,
Vancouver, Canada, October 2007.
Aníbal Matos, Nuno Cruz, "Simultaneous
Acoustic Navigation of Multiple AUVs",
Proceedings of the Conference MCMC - Maneuvering and
Control of Marine Crafts 2006, Lisbon, September 2006.
Aníbal Matos, Nuno Cruz, "AUV
navigation and guidance in a moving acoustic network",
Proceedings of the IEEE Oceans'2005 Europe, Brest,
France, June 2005.
Aníbal Matos, Nuno Cruz, “Algorithms
for External Tracking of an AUV”, Proceedings of
the Conference IAV’04, Lisbon, July 2004.
Aníbal Matos, Nuno Cruz, F. Lobo
Pereira, “Post
Mission Trajectory Smoothing for the Isurus AUV”,
Proceedings of the Conference Oceans 2003 MTS/IEEE, San
Diego, CA, USA, Sept. 2003.
(>>
extended list of publications)
Vehicle
Status
Jul'09 -
Onboard controllers redesigned, improving performance both in the
horizontal plane (horizontal velocity and orientation)
and in the horizontal plane (vertical velocity and pitch
angle).
Aug'08 -
ECO-Triplet
installed, measuring Chlorophyll-a, CDOM
and 660nm red backscatter.
Nov'07 - First sea trial. The
MARES AUV was demonstrated at sea
off the
Portuguese coast, collecting CTD data to map the plume
emanating from a sewage outfall near Foz do Arelho.
(>>
2 min. video, 7MB, courtesy B'lizzard Ltd.) (>>
more information)
Oct'07 - First autonomous mission.
The MARES AUV was demonstrated in
fresh water, in the Douro river. She navigated using LBL
and collected CTD data in a 300x50m area. (>>
more information)
Jul'07 - All major subsystems
independently validated: energy management, onboard
computer, navigation system and mission programming.
Sep'06 - First pool dive. Depth controllers were tuned
to allow independent depth and pitch control. (>>
short video, 1MB)
Aug'06 - First water test. The AUV was fully assembled
and tested for buoyancy and trimming in a water tank.
May'06 - First mechanical
parts machined in a local machine shop.
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Overview of MARES AUV
MARES equipped
with CTD, S. Martinho Porto,
November 2007
MARES at surface
in Crestuma, Douro river,
October 2007
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