ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a complete three-dimensional (3-D) dynamic model of a gliding underwater robot with full consideration of both 3-D gliding motion and dolphin-like motion. The gliding underwater robot can not only implement efficient dolphin-like swimming but also has long endurance due to the buoyancy-driven system. First, the mechanical structure, including the dolphin-like swimming part and the gliding part of the robot is offered. More important, derivation processes of the kinematic analysis, net buoyancy analysis, hydrodynamic analysis, and multilink dynamic modeling are discussed in detail to provide theoretical support. Furthermore, this chapter presents some comparisons of the spiraling movements based on these two different swimming motions and gives the corresponding analyses according to the simulation results. Finally, by comparing the results of the aquatic experiments and simulations, the effectiveness of a complete dynamic model is verified by analyzing the yaw angle and diving depth.
