Abstract
Solar-powered Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are one approach that has been utilized to address the problem of energy consumption in AUVs. However, their duty cycle is often short due to their charging algorithms or low efficiency, making them impractical. To solve these drawbacks, we have developed an algorithm which decides whether the robot should operate underwater or charge on the water surface. Taking into consideration the transition of solar radiation, time of day, and battery voltage, it is possible to increase the overall operational time the robot. Using weather data, we compared our algorithm with previous methods through experimental simulations.
