For my final year project at uni, were designing an underwater glider. the glider works by buoyancy changes with an internal pump and ballast which causes a saw tooth motion.Control and navigation of the glider is the big problem at the moment because it can only receive a gps signal when it surfaces occasionally, and other wise must travel using dead reckoning. I stumbled across the website from sparkfun and thought this might be a solution.Does anyone know whether its possible to use the ardupilot system (with an IMU) to control the navigation of the glider using INS or dead reckoning? It would also have to control a rudder, and a piston pump to control the pitch and yaw respectively. I thought it might be possible as all the required sensors are there, I'm just not sure how to go about it.any help or advice on other ways of controlling the glider would be great.thanks
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You certainly have access to most of the sensors you would need to do an INS for the glider. A pressure sensor for measuring the depth of the dive would probably be useful. If your hull compresses during the dive you might be able to do it via measuring the strain on the inside of the hull rather than have a penetration through the hull - minimise these, get a leak and you can probably kiss your glider goodbye. BTW, you might want to keep an eye on your glider's seals they apparently only last a few deployments.
I imagine currents pushing on the glider during the dive would be something you might have to live with and compensate for on the next dive after a GPS fix.
The ability to roll the glider during the dive might help as well - maybe by moving a weight around the long axis of the glider?
Have you done a search for papers on how other gliders like iRobot's Seaglider, etc navigate? Does your university have gliders already? If so, are they going to let you pull it apart... I mean examine it?
Of course, its all a trade off - the more electronics you put in the more current you pull from your battery and the shorter the deployment of your glider. Hope some of this helps.
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Simon
You certainly have access to most of the sensors you would need to do an INS for the glider. A pressure sensor for measuring the depth of the dive would probably be useful. If your hull compresses during the dive you might be able to do it via measuring the strain on the inside of the hull rather than have a penetration through the hull - minimise these, get a leak and you can probably kiss your glider goodbye. BTW, you might want to keep an eye on your glider's seals they apparently only last a few deployments.
I imagine currents pushing on the glider during the dive would be something you might have to live with and compensate for on the next dive after a GPS fix.
The ability to roll the glider during the dive might help as well - maybe by moving a weight around the long axis of the glider?
Have you done a search for papers on how other gliders like iRobot's Seaglider, etc navigate? Does your university have gliders already? If so, are they going to let you pull it apart... I mean examine it?
Of course, its all a trade off - the more electronics you put in the more current you pull from your battery and the shorter the deployment of your glider. Hope some of this helps.