Coordination between groups of autonomous vehicles is made difficult by the imperfect nature of sensors which makes precisely locating each vehicle difficult. Belief spaces representing the probability of an automaton being at any given location and mathematical control functions incorporating the different vehicles govern the motion of these vehicles. To test different three-dimensional control functions in a realistic environment, multiple robotic fish were constructed to act as test vehicles. These vehicles will eventually maneuver as a group using knowledge of their probable location and the probable locations of other fish. Another goal is to increase the mobility of the robots to make them more responsive. Diagrams of real carangiform fish performing maneuvers were analyzed and the motions were duplicated in the robots. New rapid-turn and rapid-start maneuvers were added to the standard forward swim and turn. Current goals include improving the rapid-turn maneuver to achieve the maximum turn speed possible with these fish. Other work includes further study on how well the fish can maneuver with tail-only and pectoral-only swimming.
Advised by Kristi Morgansen, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
CSE 403
Wednesday
May 9, 2007
3:30 - 4:20 pm