Quaternion based control for robotic observation of marine diversity

Abstract

Marine biodiversity is increasingly affected by human activities such as climate change, habitat destruction and fishing. In this context a key challenge for marine biologists is to be able to monitor biodiversity at large scale and high temporal frequency. However, underwater observations of marine biodiversity based on free or SCUBA diving are practically limited in terms of maximal depth and duration of diving because of physiological and technical constraints. In this context, the use of an underwater robotics system has an evident interest, but requires a detailed analysis of the expert protocols, in order to guarantee that the robotic system is in synergy with the expert needs. In this paper, we present 3 different functioning modes for the robotic system that we have established with our biologist partners from the Marbec <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1</sup> laboratory. The robotic aspect is handled by the LIRMM <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> laboratory and its underwater division, the Explore team <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> . This paper is structured to present the biological and robotic context first. Then, a generic control will be demonstrated. Then, we present our control structure where the control is applied following the 3 modes. Finally, we present simulation results.