Tracking control of underwater gliders in ocean mesoscale eddies observation task

Transports of heat, fresh water and other things in the ocean have huge effect on the globe climate and resource distribution. Mesoscale eddies play such an important role in the transport process that many researchers want to study the interior structure of ocean mesoscale eddies. However, the eddy is still greatly under observation since the traditional method cannot accomplish persistent and maneuvering observation task result from the expensive cost and limitation of instruments. Underwater gliders which are cost-efficient and have relative high level of maneuverability compared with traditional method, can be implemented in this kind of observation task. Because the eddy system shifts and changes in the ocean unceasingly, one cannot apply the traditional path following control algorithm to follow a path that is defined in the coordinate system with eddy center being the origin. A framework of ocean mesoscale eddies observation system is established in the paper. The cost function for sampling path plan based on the demand of marine scientists is developed. Since the translation of eddies can be essentially treated as movement of inertial object, in this paper the Kalman filter with current statistical model is utilized to predict the shift of the eddy center. Finally a simulation system is established to validate the efficiency and feasibility of this algorithm.