Glider CT: reconstructing flow fields from predicted motion of underwater gliders

Authors:
Wencen Wu;Dongsik Chang;Fumin Zhang
Affiliations:
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA;Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA;Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Venue:
Proceedings of the Eighth ACM International Conference on Underwater Networks and Systems
Year:
2013

Citing 4
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Compressed sensing

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Abstract

The motion of underwater gliders is strongly affected by ocean currents, which would benefit from a precise map of flow velocity with fine resolution. In this paper, we propose a novel method for reconstructing depth-averaged flow fields leveraging a motion prediction system. The method is based on the fact that the difference between the actual GPS location where a glider comes to the surface and the predicted surfacing position is determined by a line integral of depth-averaged ocean currents along the underwater trajectory of the glider. Even though the underwater trajectories of a glider can not be directly observed, the motion prediction system can be employed to estimate such trajectories. When multiple gliders are involved, we are able to formulate the problem of reconstructing a depth-averaged flow field as a nonlinear estimation problem that has strong connections with algorithms in computerized tomography (CT). However, extensions to CT algorithms are necessary due to the nonlinear nature and practical constraints of the flow reconstruction problem. As a first step towards solving this problem, this paper develops iterative algorithms with demonstrated success in simulations.