Design of an autonomous amphibious robot for surf zone operations: part II - hardware, control implementation and simulation

This paper describes a work at The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) to create an autonomous highly mobile amphibious robot. A first generation land-based prototype has been constructed and field tested. This robot design, based on a tracked element, is capable of autonomous waypoint navigation, self-orientation, obstacle avoidance, and has the capacity to transmit sensor (visual) feedback. A water-resistant second generation amphibious prototype design, based around the biologically inspired Whegstrade platform, has been completed. This design marries the unprecedented mobility of Whegstrade with the autonomous hardware and control architectures implemented in the first generation prototype. Furthermore, we have also implemented a dynamic simulation capturing salient features of Whegstrade for testing of robotic locomotion capabilities. The integration of these elements can lay the foundation for the development of a new generation of highly mobile autonomous amphibious robots