The Sunfish: Laying the Groundwork for Autonomous Underwater Navigation
Additional Funding Sources
The project described was supported by a student grant from the UI Office of Undergraduate Research.
Abstract
The task this summer was to build an interface to ease in partially-autonomous movement of the underwater robot The Sunfish. The interface acts as an intermediate layer between the drone controller acting as the basic stability and movement controls for The Sunfish and the user, allowing the user to control it via basic commands in a Python script, rather than using a controller, and laying the groundwork for autonomous navigation in the future.
The Interface has several primary uses. The first subgroup of functions is basic movement functions, which are for basic movement when no underwater location system is available. The second group is advanced movement functions. These rely on a location system, and only work when on the surface, or an underwater location system has been set up. Most of the advanced commands use waypoint-based navigation, and perform actions such as returning home or loitering in a specified area. The final set of functions are data-gathering functions. These functions record data, either continuously or based on a trigger, from both the drone itself and any properly configured sensors attached to the drone. Finally, the interface is also designed to be easily expanded, so future users can easily add functionality.
The Sunfish: Laying the Groundwork for Autonomous Underwater Navigation
The task this summer was to build an interface to ease in partially-autonomous movement of the underwater robot The Sunfish. The interface acts as an intermediate layer between the drone controller acting as the basic stability and movement controls for The Sunfish and the user, allowing the user to control it via basic commands in a Python script, rather than using a controller, and laying the groundwork for autonomous navigation in the future.
The Interface has several primary uses. The first subgroup of functions is basic movement functions, which are for basic movement when no underwater location system is available. The second group is advanced movement functions. These rely on a location system, and only work when on the surface, or an underwater location system has been set up. Most of the advanced commands use waypoint-based navigation, and perform actions such as returning home or loitering in a specified area. The final set of functions are data-gathering functions. These functions record data, either continuously or based on a trigger, from both the drone itself and any properly configured sensors attached to the drone. Finally, the interface is also designed to be easily expanded, so future users can easily add functionality.
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