Multi-sensor Based Autonomous Underwater Manipulator Grasp.

As the development of mine, oil and gas resources exploitation in the ocean, the underwater manipulators become necessary tools. But operation of manipulator is tedious. To reduce its dependence on operator, autonomous manipulation is studied. With the support of the Chinese high technology develop program (the 863 program), we design an underwater 3500m electrical driven manipulator. It is equipped with a unique ultra-sonic probe array and an underwater camera. Autonomous grasping a cylinder using ultra-sonic sensor and vision is studied. The sensor system and strategy of autonomous manipulation are discussed in details. Experiments results demonstrated the manipulator autonomous work ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]