PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT OF AUTONOMOUS-MOBILE FLOATING-ROBOT FOR AUTOMATIC VELOCITY MEASUREMENT IN NATURAL RIVERS

Abstract

It is of special importance to measure mean velocity and discharge in natural rivers for preventing flood disasters. This study developed autonomous-mobile floating-robot for the purpose of automatic measurement of mean velocity in an open-channel flow. A PID control method could keep the position of the floating-robot against main stream, and then mean velocity could be evaluated reasonably by a rotational speed of screw propeller. Accurate laboratory experiments using LDA provide the calibration curve that connects the propeller speed and mean current velocity. Furthermore, it was recognized that our robot can move successfully in the horizontal plane from the start point to the target one.