Development of Disk Type Underwater Glider for Virtual Mooring

- Part 2, Construction of Test-bed Vehicle and Field Experiments -

Abstract

An underwater vehicle for virtual mooring was constructed at the Research Institute for Applied Mechanics (RIAM), Kyushu University. The disk type vehicle that houses various pieces of observation equipment glides back and forth between the sea surface and the seabed collecting ocean data. If the position is outside the sea area of virtual mooring because of currents etc., the vehicle is controlled so that it returns the previous area during its next dive. Horizontal movement of the vehicle is done with gliding and without thrusters. The gliding ratio and the course of the vehicle are controlled by moving the position of the built-in weight.This paper presents the developed test-bed vehicle and its field experiment.