Station Keeping with an Autonomous Underwater Glider Using a Predictive Model of Ocean Currents

Abstract

We investigate the use of an autonomous underwater glider as a platform for a virtual mooring. Our approach uses a simple vehicle motion model, a predictive model of ocean currents, and a greedy search algorithm in order to simulate possible actions available to the vehicle and select an action to minimize the distance from the target point. Results from a 19 day experiment in October 2016 near Monterey Bay are presented where we test our control algorithm as well as investigate the effect of a glider’s dive profile on its ability to act as a virtual mooring.