Underwater pole inspection using two micro AUVs

This article describes the strategy to use two autonomous underwater vehicles (auvs) in underwater pole inspection work. they are called vehicle a and vehicle b. vehicle a will surround the pole in counter clockwise direction whereas vehicle b will surround the pole in clockwise direction until the two vehicles meet. then they will dive a certain distance and continuous surrounding the pole in opposite direction. the mechanical design of both vehicle a and vehicle b are exactly the same. the only different between them is vehicle a will make use of higher capability of underwater navigation and tracking system. therefore,vehicle a is functioning as lead vehicle. vehicle a and vehicle b will communicate with each other periodically for control signal dissemination and positioning error. this article also mention about the prototype design of vehicle a and vehicle b. some preliminary result of proposed pole inspection system is also included in this article. © 2015 penerbit utm press. all rights reserved.