Development and Experiments of the Sea-Wing Underwater Glider

Underwater gliders,which glide through water columns by use of a pair of wings,are efficient long-distance,long-duration marine environment observatory platforms.The Sea-Wing underwater glider,developed by the Shenyang Institute of Automation,CAS,is designed for the application of deep-sea environment variables observation.The system components,the mechanical design,and the control system design of the Sea-Wing underwater glider are described in this paper.The pitch and roll adjusting models are derived based on the mechanical design,and the adjusting capabilities for the pitch and roll are analyzed according to the models.Field experiments have been carried out for validating the gliding motion and the ability of measuring ocean environment variables.Experimental results of the motion performances of the glider are presented.