Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

UGSim: Autonomous Buoyancy-Driven Underwater Glider Simulator with LQR Control Strategy and Recursive Guidance System

Zhizun Xu, Yang Song, Jiabao Zhu, Weichao Shi

TL;DR

UGSim delivers a specialized, Gazebo-based simulator for buoyancy-driven underwater gliders by integrating a kinetic module that captures hydrodynamic and hydrostatic effects, an LQR control module for decoupled vertical and horizontal regulation, and a recursive guidance system tailored to long-endurance missions with imperfect underwater positioning. Built on the UUVsim and DAVE platforms, UGSim bridges existing robotics simulators with glider-specific dynamics, enabling rapid development and evaluation of control and guidance algorithms. The Petrel-II case study demonstrates realistic dynamics, effective pitch/heard control, and waypoint tracking under adaptive guidance, highlighting practical benefits for ocean sensing tasks. Overall, UGSim reduces reliance on costly sea trials while providing a flexible tool for testing buoyancy-driven glider strategies across hydrodynamic regimes. The work has practical impact for oceanographic sampling, reconnaissance, and marine exploration where long-duration, low-maneuverability underwater vehicles are deployed.

Abstract

This paper presents the UGSim, a simulator for buoyancy-driven gliders, with a LQR control strategy, and a recursive guidance system. Building on the top of the DAVE and the UUVsim, it is designed to address unique challenges that come from the complex hydrodynamic and hydrostatic impacts on buoyancy-driven gliders, which conventional robotics simulators can't deal with. Since distinguishing features of the class of vehicles, general controllers and guidance systems developed for underwater robotics are infeasible. The simulator is provided to accelerate the development and the evaluation of algorithms that would otherwise require expensive and time-consuming operations at sea. It consists of a basic kinetic module, a LQR control module and a recursive guidance module, which allows the user to concentrate on the single problem rather than the whole robotics system and the software infrastructure. We demonstrate the usage of the simulator through an example, loading the configuration of the buoyancy-driven glider named Petrel-II, presenting its dynamics simulation, performances of the control strategy and the guidance system.

UGSim: Autonomous Buoyancy-Driven Underwater Glider Simulator with LQR Control Strategy and Recursive Guidance System

TL;DR

UGSim delivers a specialized, Gazebo-based simulator for buoyancy-driven underwater gliders by integrating a kinetic module that captures hydrodynamic and hydrostatic effects, an LQR control module for decoupled vertical and horizontal regulation, and a recursive guidance system tailored to long-endurance missions with imperfect underwater positioning. Built on the UUVsim and DAVE platforms, UGSim bridges existing robotics simulators with glider-specific dynamics, enabling rapid development and evaluation of control and guidance algorithms. The Petrel-II case study demonstrates realistic dynamics, effective pitch/heard control, and waypoint tracking under adaptive guidance, highlighting practical benefits for ocean sensing tasks. Overall, UGSim reduces reliance on costly sea trials while providing a flexible tool for testing buoyancy-driven glider strategies across hydrodynamic regimes. The work has practical impact for oceanographic sampling, reconnaissance, and marine exploration where long-duration, low-maneuverability underwater vehicles are deployed.

Abstract

This paper presents the UGSim, a simulator for buoyancy-driven gliders, with a LQR control strategy, and a recursive guidance system. Building on the top of the DAVE and the UUVsim, it is designed to address unique challenges that come from the complex hydrodynamic and hydrostatic impacts on buoyancy-driven gliders, which conventional robotics simulators can't deal with. Since distinguishing features of the class of vehicles, general controllers and guidance systems developed for underwater robotics are infeasible. The simulator is provided to accelerate the development and the evaluation of algorithms that would otherwise require expensive and time-consuming operations at sea. It consists of a basic kinetic module, a LQR control module and a recursive guidance module, which allows the user to concentrate on the single problem rather than the whole robotics system and the software infrastructure. We demonstrate the usage of the simulator through an example, loading the configuration of the buoyancy-driven glider named Petrel-II, presenting its dynamics simulation, performances of the control strategy and the guidance system.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 24 sections, 39 equations, 18 figures, 5 tables, 1 algorithm.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Literature Review
  3. Simulator Framework
  4. Kinetic Module
  5. Kinetic Equations
  6. Extension of External Force and Moments Terms
  7. Variables Classification
  8. Control Variables Variation
  9. Coordinates Transformation
  10. LQR Control Module
  11. LQR Control Strategy
  12. LQR Controller Derivation
  13. Recursive Guidance Moule
  14. Conversion from Geographic Coordinate System to NED Frame
  15. Desired Heading Angle Identification
  16. ...and 9 more sections

Figures (18)

  • Figure 1: Simulator Framework
  • Figure 2: Kinetic Module
  • Figure 3: Mass Definitions for Buoyancy-Driven Gliders
  • Figure 4: Comparison of ENU and NED Frames: Left figure presents an ENU Frame; Right figure presents a NED frame.
  • Figure 5: Frames in the simulator. Note that the two global frames and two local frames share the same original points, which means the distances of between the two local frames and the two global frames don't exist actually. We separate these frames so that they can be recognized visually.
  • ...and 13 more figures