uw_dynamics

Abstract:

Underwater biomimetic robots are biologically inspired robots that involve complex rigid body dynamics and fluid interactions which are relatively hard to compute, test and validate compared to robots which use propellers/thrusters for their propulsion. This paper presents a scalable open-source simulation framework built upon gazebo and ROS for underwater biomimetic robots that may or may not adhere to slender body approximation. The paper details the underwater rigid body dynamics, reactive and resistive forces acting on the body, torque due to these forces and showcases simulations of various biomimetic robots that were simulated using the developed framework.

Getting Started:

Clone the repository to the home directory,

$ git clone https://github.com/imsenthur/uw_dynamics.git

Build:

$ cd uw_dynamics/build/
$ cmake ../
$ make

Add it to your GAZEBO_PLUGIN_PATH:

$ export GAZEBO_PLUGIN_PATH=~/uw_dyn/build/devel/lib:$GAZEBO_PLUGIN_PATH

Implementation:

$ <gazebo>
$   <plugin name="underwater_dynamics" filename="libuw_dynamics.so">
$     <fluid_density>997</fluid_density>
$   </plugin>
$ </gazebo>

Add the plugin to your robot's URDF/SDF.

Future work:

Seamless integration of UW_sim package with the developed framework to use UW_sim for rendering and gazebo for dynamics is currently under development. http://wiki.ros.org/uwsim