Questions: Underwater Robotics and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
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Question 1 Multiple Choice
An AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) uses dead reckoning to navigate: it integrates accelerometer readings to estimate velocity, integrates velocity to estimate position. After 4 hours of autonomous operation, the AUV returns to the starting location where a stationary acoustic beacon is deployed. The AUV's estimated position is off by 500 meters, but the actual position is correct. Why does dead reckoning accumulate error so quickly?
AWater currents push the AUV off-course, and accelerometers don't sense external forces
BAccelerometers have constant bias (zero-offset error) that integrates over time, and gyroscope drift causes heading errors. Small errors in each sensor compound through integration
CThe AUV's propeller is inefficient
DDead reckoning is fundamentally incompatible with AUVs
The absence of external reference (like GPS) makes underwater navigation fundamentally harder than terrestrial robotics. This is why underwater systems are expensive — they require precision inertial sensors, high-quality sonar, and sophisticated filtering. A typical research AUV costs $1-5M partly due to navigation hardware and software.