Abstract
Underwater robots can play a significant role in the investigations of underwater environment. However, conventional underwater robot systems that consist of underwater robot, operator and huge support ship have some problems such as propagation loss of acoustic wave, constraint of underwater robot behavior by umbilical cable. In this research, underwater robot systems with a Surface Support Vehicle that tracks an underwater robot are proposed. The Surface Support Vehicle is a compact surface vehicle having the functions of support ship and tracks an underwater robot autonomously. By installation of the Surface Support Vehicle, the problems of conventional underwater robot systems are resolved, and novel operation methods are realized. In this paper, the advantages of installation of the Surface Support Vehicle are explained and a effectiveness of the Surface Support Vehicle is verified by the experimental results in actual environment.
