Title
Towards docking for small scale underwater robots
Abstract
This article presents a novel docking system developed for miniature underwater robots. Recent years have seen an increased diffusion of robots for ocean monitoring, exploration and maintenance of underwater infrastructures. The versatility of those vehicles is extremely affected and limited by energetic constraints and difficulties in updating their mission parameters. Submerged docking stations are a promising solution for providing energy sources and data exchange, thus extending autonomy and mission duration of underwater robots. Furthermore, the docking capability is a novel, but promising approach to enable modularity and reconfigurability in underwater robotics. The authors here propose a hybrid docking system composed of a magnetic alignment unit and a mechanical connection. The former passively aligns and guides the underwater vehicle facilitating a subsequent mechanical connection. The reliability of the system is both analytically investigated and experimentally validated. Finally, the mechanical design of the docking system of two miniature underwater robots is described in detail.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1007/s10514-014-9410-3
Autonomous Robots
Keywords
Field
DocType
Autonomous docking,Magnetic alignment,Miniature AUV,Underwater robots
Data exchange,Reconfigurability,Simulation,Docking (dog),Computer science,Energy source,Underwater robotics,Robot,Modularity,Underwater
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
38
3
0929-5593
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
4
0.64
26
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
S Mintchev1688.43
Raffaele Ranzani240.64
Filippo Fabiani340.64
Cesare Stefanini418845.66