Development of a Compact Autonomous Underwater vehicle Using Varivec Propeller

This paper describes an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with a distributed fuzzy controller and underwater acoustic communication. Our AUV is made compact and lightweight by using a Varivec propeller and compact controller with sophisticated logic circuits. The AUV is precisely controlled using underwater ultrasonic command signals and fuzzy control. The AUV is autonomously controlled using an electronic compass, collision avoidance sonar, depth sensor, and GPS receiver. Experimental results show that our AUV moved along the target path and held the desired position keeping azimuth direction and depth. We also confirmed that our algorithm to increase the reliability of ultrasonic communication worked without fail.