Abstract
Solar-powered Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) have been developed to solve the problem of energy consumption in AUVs, but their operational time is short due to their charging algorithms and low efficiency, making them impractical. To improve this, we developed an Energy Self-sufficient Underwater Robot which uses a buoyancy control engine, known as a high efficiency method. This robot repeats a sink-float cycle, and recharges the battery via solar cells. We analyzed its motion efficiency and derived its theoretical operational cycle and time, then compared these with data from experimental evaluation. Finally, we discuss how these results will be used for further improvements in the future.
