Underwater electro-navigation in the dark

Abstract

This article proposes a solution to the problem of the navigation of underwater robots in confined unstructured environments wetted by turbid waters. The solution is based on a new sensor bio-inspired from electric fish. Exploiting the morphology of the sensor as well as taking inspiration from passive electro-location in real fish, the solution turns out to be a sensory-motor loop encoding a simple behavior relevant to exploration missions. This behavior consists in seeking conductive objects while avoiding insulating ones. The solution is illustrated on experiments. It is robust and works even in very unstructured scenes. It does not require any model and is quite cheap to implement.