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...