An Experimental Testbed for Multi-Robot Tracking of Manifolds and Coherent Structures in Flows
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
1-1-2013
Abstract
In this paper, we describe the development of an experimental testbed capable of producing controllable ocean-like flows in a laboratory setting. The objective is to develop a testbed to evaluate multi-robot strategies for tracking manifolds and Lagrangian coherent structures (LCS) in the ocean. Recent theoretical results have shown that LCS coincide with minimum energy and minimum time optimal paths for autonomous vehicles in the ocean. Furthermore, knowledge of these structures enables the prediction and estimation of the underlying fluid dynamics. The testbed is a scaled flow tank capable of generating complex and controlled quasi-2D flow fields that exhibit wind-driven doublegyre flows. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to extract the 2D surface velocities and the data is then processed to verify the existence of manifolds and Lagrangian coherent structures in the flow. The velocity data is then used to evaluate our previously proposed multi-robot LCS tracking strategy in simulation.
DOI
10.1115/DSCC2013-3745
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Michini, Matthew; Mallory, Kenneth; Larkin, Dennis; Hsieh, M. Ani; Forgoston, Eric; and Yecko, Philip A., "An Experimental Testbed for Multi-Robot Tracking of Manifolds and Coherent Structures in Flows" (2013). Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 12.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/appliedmath-stats-facpubs/12