Design, Modeling and Control of a Spherical Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Mine Exploration

This paper presents the design, implementation and validation of a novel spherical Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) prototype, developed for inspection and exploration of flooded mine tunnel networks. The unique mechanical, electrical and hardware design is presented, as well as the development of a theoretical 6 degree-of-freedom (DOF) high-fidelity dynamic model of the system. A series of underwater experiments were carried out in a controlled environment to test the standard motion patterns of the AUV with a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller. The performance of the PID controller will be used as the baseline for comparison of more advanced control schemes. The experimental results demonstrated that the spherical AUV was able to realize the tested underwater motions with notable performance.