Hydrobatics: A Review of Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for Efficient and Agile Underactuated AUVs

Hydrobatics refers to agile maneuvering of under-water vehicles just like aerobatics represents agile maneuvering of aerial vehicles. Performance trade-offs between flight and hover style autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) means that either maneuverability or range is compromised. Hydrobatic capabilities in flight style AUVs can bridge this gap and lead to more efficient and agile vehicles; thereby encouraging disruptive designs. As this is a relatively new area of research with very limited published research work, the focus of this paper is to present a multidisciplinary literature review to provide a path forward for further research. Relevant impact areas in ocean production, environmental sensing and security are discussed. Technical challenges are described in underactuated control and flight dynamics modeling. Synergies and opportunities are explored with aerospace engineering, robotics and artificial intelligence. As a part of this study, a simulation and verification framework is suggested and ongoing work is presented.