System for automatic soil sampling by underwater vehicle

The development and research of the new synthesis method of the control system for an underwater vehicle with a manipulator is described in the paper. This system provides an automatic soil sampling and geological samples of the sea bottom surface. Working in the automatic mode, the developed system defines location of the bottom surface relative to the underwater vehicle by means of the onboard multibeam Doppler lag. During vehicle immersion the system evaluates the complexity of the bottom relief in the working area and makes a decision on the suitability of the said relief for trouble-free implementation of the specified manipulative tasks. Also, the proposed system realizes an algorithm for formation of spatial trajectories of multilink underwater manipulators working tools and defines vehicle spatial orientation and position at which of manipulation operations performance occurs in the most efficiently and safe way.