2007 IEEE International Symposium

on Signal Processing and Information Technology

Sonar Localization Using Ubiquitous Sensor

Network for Water Pollution Monitoring Fish Robots
Daejung Shin#l, Seung You Na*2, Jin Young Kim*3, Seong-Joon Baek*4
4BK21, Chonnam National University
300 Yongbong-dong, Buk-gu, Gwang/u, South Korea 500-757
_djshin71ha@hotmail.cor
*Dept. ofElectronics and Computer Engineering, Chonnam National University
300 Yongbong-dong, Buk-gu, Gwang/u, SOUTHKOREA 500-757
2synaDchonnam. ac kr
3beyondi@chonnamn.ac.kr
4tozero@chonnam. ac .kr

Abstract- We present a sonar localization method using Recently Zhang, et al. [14] studied to show the realization of
ubiquitous sensor network for autonomous water pollution swimming equation using neural network techniques. To
monitoring fish robots. Autonomous tracking is one of important extend the territory of applications in fish robot, Tan, et
functions in mobile underwater vehicles which monitor water al.[15] provide researches on autonomous fish robots for
pollution indices. When fish robots find obstacles on its path, mobile sensing.
proper direction changes to avoid collision are necessary.
Otherwise, they shouldfollow the given tracks as close as possible For one of the practical applications of fish robots, a new
to obtain a pollution map. For efficient tracking performance and method of the water pollution mapping and tracking system
procedures of surveying water areas, fish robots use GPS and a by using a fish robot based on ubiquitous sensor network is
sonar system to find exact localization. Although GPS is a introduced in [6]. In the water pool, imitating the similar
fundamental tool to obtain positional information, it is not the best situation such as the diffusion of a real water pollution source
choice in our system due to large errors. Fish robots need to have was successfully processed. But in real situations, for example,
more precise localization methods. In this paper, we propose to in the lake or the river, a fish robot needs more precise
employ USN motes with sonar system to transmit ultrasonic sound positional information
to calculate precise positional information. Our experimental Positina information. a
results show that fish robots obtain more detailed positional GPt systuemsosimple era in locaizatoGProbems
information and make better tracking performance in the real but magnitudes of positional errors in an ordinary GPS system
situation. are too large for pollution monitoring by a fish robot. To
overcome this problem, we introduce a sonar localization
I. INTRODUCTION method using Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN) for water
The most popular underwater vehicles have the shape of pollution monitoring fish robots. In experiments, a fish robot
submersible, because of its simplicity and facility in has four sonar sensors: one is for the transmitter and receiver
manipulation. But the mechanics and propulsive method of of ultrasonic sound and the others are for only receivers of
submersibles are not common in nature. Inspired by ultrasonic sound. One active sonar sensor is used to find
biomimetics, some robotic devices are being developed to obstacles and avoid them. The others are used to calculate the
investigate and assess aquatic biological systems and their exact localization information using the ubiquitous sensor
locomotion mechanisms for better performance [1][2][3][4]. network system. Many USN motes are installed at specific
A fish in nature moves its body to make propulsive power. points that are uniformly distributed along the boundary of a
And it is well-known that a fish achieves excellent efficiency given area to be monitored.
and manoeuvrability that has the advantage over conventional Simple fuzzy logic commands are used for trajectory
propeller based marine vehicles [5]. direction changes of monitoring robots, which are based on
Due to various kinds of water plants and trashes, obstacle two fundamental data of the localization and the possible
detection and collision avoidance are the primary and crucial existence of obstacles [7].
tasks for fish robots to make smooth and natural movements. A fish robot for pollution monitoring including a
The robots need to detect obstacles in advance and move microcontroller and some sensors is addressed in section 2.
without collision. Robots make appropriate propulsion The ubiquitous sensor network and detailed sonar localization
direction changes to avoid collision based on JR distance method are covered in section 3. A fish robot control and
sensors and sonar sensors. experimental results are given in section 4, followed by
Many researchers have tried to find optimal swimming conclusion.
equations to realize the same motion of fish in nature. I.FS OO

978-1 -4244-1 835-0/07/$25.00 ©C2007 IEEE 80

 We have constructed several types of fish-shaped Since obstacle avoidance is the most important function in
underwater robots in our lab. The robots that have various mobile robot, whether it is wheel based or not, lots of previous
structures and shapes of real fish imitate the ways the real fish studies have presented a variety of methods and applications
swim. For instance, four servo motors are used at the caudal [6][7][8][9].
fin of the robot for propulsion and horizontal direction control. A fish robot has fish-like shape as shown in Figure 1. The
Distance sensors, three IR distance sensors and four sonar length of a fish robot is about 78cm, the width is 21cm, and
sensors, which are mounted at the front and two sides of the the height is 19cm. The total length of a tail fin is about 43cm,
head, measure the distance to an obstacle. Sonar sensors are because this fish robot has a long tail and a long flexible body.
used for two reasons; one is for obstacle detection and the The maximum changeable angle of the tail fin is over 100
other is localization by llNS motes. Only one sonar sensor is degrees, but we limit this angle to 90 degrees. More detailed
active and the other three sonar sensors are passive. A fish specifications of a fish robot are shown in Table 1.
robot uses one active sonar sensor and three sonar sensors for TABLE 1
obstacle detection. Only three sonar sensors are used for
localization. Every signal is processed based on the SPECIFICATIONS OF A FISH ROBOT
MSP430F149 by TI. User commands and sensor data are Item Specification
transmitted between the fish robot and a host notebook PC Length 78Cm
either by Bluetooth modules or USN motes. A fish robot is Width 21Cm
shown in Figure 1. Height 19Cm
Weight 4230g
Maximum angle of tail fin T 43C
i__...... |Minimum rotation radius 37Cm
Maximum speed 72Cm/sec
Maximum torque of motors 7.4KgCm at 6V
Angular speed of motors
...................~~~~~~~~~~~
3001/sec

sonarsensor Fisog. 1anderwater fish-shaperobottyeofsnos()Mccnrleradpihrldvcs

Thke infraredcditaner soenovr,r hegardless ozf obstacleolorz lC
betwee ornarw the
robt obstacle..
ondarsnsrotnmseThre inrae disanc
sesos G212,ar ue t distance eaueRh from the

redce to abu 12-0c unewtr thuhternei 0

Fis. smallsor the air Mthe
80cm inconarguraiow t cnigrto
onar sensorobot
ofthe
ofelectronic
Most
...
th mevises obstacles.a
sesr on th fish mirocontroller

rag of JR sensor is- very short andnarowrndohemangno

sona sesr isP0 long an wie w ifrnttpsoesr (a) Microcontroller aniprciphefral deicsb oo
make~~~~~upgfo eacrchothr. oreoer,we thesize forafisrobstace-

mote, n
MSP40fl9, n elctrniccompss,andoneUSN

twobattFig.y Micsroconstroller circisnoa fish080m

robot

81
aluminum box with a cover for waterproof. One GPS receiver, operations of a fish robot for natural swimming are described
three IR sensors, and four ultrasonic sensors with circuits are in Table 2 and Figure 5 in [7]. The front, left and right fixed
mounted outside of the box. The microcontroller circuits for a IR sensors are represented as F, L, and R, respectively.
fish robot are shown in Figure 3. Detection of an obstacle for each sensor is depicted as "1"
Motor command control word is composed of 8 bits as while "0" means no detection for the corresponding sensor. In
below. Table 2, forward means the predefined direction. The fish
BIT 7: Operation Control Bit robot must find initial direction and change direction at least
0: Motor stop when it moves underwater.
1: Motor run
BIT 6: Mode Control Bit
0: Normal swim
1: Quick turn
BIT 5: Direction Control Bit hi]
0: Left direction
1: right directionllll
BIT 0 to 4: Direction Information Bits (32 steps)
Case 'Normal swim' - 00 to 310 direction changes
Case 'Quick turn' - 300 to 1800 direction changes

The lower flexible body of a fish robot composes a tail fin.

The tail fin is made of four servo motors with mechanical
connections. Each servo motor is covered with the wrinkle
rubber tube and move independently. Elaborate movement of
four servo motors makes a fish robot swim smoothly and Fig. 5 Positions of a fish robot relative to simplified obstacles
naturally. All control commands of these servo motors are
made in a microcontroller MSP430f149. The lower body and
the caudal fin of a fish robot are shown in Figure 4. TABLE 2
POSITIONS OF A FISH ROBOT WITH OBSTACLES AND ITS CRUISE OPERATIONS

F I LI R|| Operation
o o 0 Swim forward
o o 1 Swim forward without colliding with the right obstacle
o 1 0 Swim forward without colliding with the left obstacle
o0 1 Swim forward and keep middle position
When O, > 90°,
1ii.0A 0A Turn left and try not to collide with right obstacle
When OF< 90,
Turn right and try not to collide with left obstacle
1 0 1 Turn left and try not to collide with the right obstacle
1 1 0 Turn right and try not to collide with the left obstacle
When L > R,
Turn left and try not to collide with the right obstacle
I 1 1 X1
-
When L<R,
Turn right and try not to collide with the left obstacle

Fig. 4 Lower body and caudal fin of a fish robot

III. UBIQUITOUS SENSOR NETWORK AND LOCALIZATION

The obstacle avoidance of a fish robot iS essential for
successful performance in water. The fish robot uses three IR
sensors for short distance obstacles and a sonar system for
long distance obstacles. A basic set of positions of a fish robot Fg oa esr
relative to simplified obstacles and the corresponding

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 The sonar system is composed of one transmitter/receiver Information which is obtained from the two sonar sensors
and three receivers. The overall system includes several USN is enough to calculate the exact positional information,
motes with the sonar transmitter. The configuration of the because a fish robot swims near the surface of the water and
sonar system is shown in Figure 6. One transmitter and knows GPS information. A mote with a sonar sensor which
receiver set and one receiver are attached in the front of the transmits ultrasonic sound is shown in Figure 8. We use
head. Two receivers are attached in the front sides. This sonar Zigbex by Hanback Electronics (www.hanback.com) for
system has two purposes: one is for obstacle detection by Ubiquitous Sensor Networks.
reflected echoes from the transmitter/receiver and the other is The localization flow chart is shown in Figure 9. After a
for localization by USN sonar system. The fish robot selects fish robot reads GPS and directional data, it must search
the function of sonar sensors in each case. obstacles using the sonar sensor and IR sensors. When it
The detailed localization method is shown in Figure 7. The detects obstacles, a fish robot change its path to avoid
fish robot has the exact position information of each mote obstacles [5][6]. When there is no obstacle, it finds the two
with a sonar transmitter. Furthermore, a fish robot knows optimal motes which transmit ultrasonic sound for localization
rough position information from the GPS receiver and from the GPS data and directional data. First, a fish robot
directional information from an electronic compass. SiRF Star requests one mote to transmit ultrasonic sound, and wait until
II serial type GPS receiver is used in our experiments. The it receives the sound. After receiving the sound, it requests the
robot requests its internal sonar sensor to transmit signals to other mote to transmit the sound. Unless it receives the
nearby motes so that it can receive ultrasonic ultrasonic sound in one second, a fish robot makes a request
acknowledgement signals from at least two motes. After again. When it doesn't receive ultrasonic sound two times
receiving ultrasonic signals from the two motes, distances from the same mote, it must find another mote to get the
from the fish robot to each mote are calculated and then the signal.
exact positional information is determined. All data from the
fish robot is sent to the server system using USN.
( ta rt

Sonar on
, Sonar off Read GPS.
USN Mote Read directional data.

\ <\ '<, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Search

obstacle from sonar sensor.
Search obstacle from IR sensors.

Yes
Is there obstacle? Avoid obstacle

0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0 ~~~~~~~~~~~No
<

Find the optimal two motes

--0-
--- which transmit ultrasonic sound.

Fig. 7 Detailed localization of a fish robot Request one mote to transmit

ultrasonic sound and wait. N e

The sonar sensor of a fish robot is a general purpose euest

ultrasonic range finder UMI and UM2 by DAS (www.das- if

co.com). This sensor is operated using 12V DC in the air. We = eu rason cs

made a minor change to operate by 5V operation voltage Yes
underwater and only to receive the ultrasonic sound, becausecNo
* * 11 rr * Rece~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ive
two motedt.
one sonar sensor originally has a two-way function.

End of command'?

Fig. 8 Mote with Sonar for localization

83
 The microcontroller operates the timer immediately after
transferring the command string to request transmission of
sonar system until a fish robot receives an acknowledgement
sound. We consider both the processing time of 11 characters
at the baud rate 57,600 bps and time for transferring
commands in a microcontroller to calculate the distance. The
processing time after transmitting the command is about
1.9msec.
IV. CONTROL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The motion of the rear body can be considered as travelling
waves that increase in amplitude from the head to the tail.
Lighthill[ I 1] shows the travelling waves from the observation
of natural fishes. The body wave equation [12][13] is given by
about 90 degrees. The GPS data is not used in this experiment,
because the size of the pool is small.
For the fast correction of programs and experimental tests,
the cover of a fish robot can be removed. The experimental
results are shown in Figure 11. Sonar localization provides
much more detailed positional data than GPS. The errors of
the ordinary GPS system are several meters, but the mean
value of absolute measurement position error in Figure 11 is
2.3cm and standard deviation is 1.6cm.

ybodY(x,t) (c1x+c2x2)sin(kx+w)t) (1) 11111111111 1111111 11111111111111111

where Ybody represents the transverse displacement of the tail iiiiiiiiiillll i 111111111111111111111 1 _
fin, x is displacement along the main axis, k indicates the Fig. 10 A fish robot in swimming pool
body wave number (k 2=27/ ), A is the wave length, c1 is
the linear wave amplitude envelope, c2 is the quadratic wave 2500 mlote 6 mote 5 mote4
amplitude envelope, and w is the body wave frequency. The_
details of determination and parameter optimization of the 200| r i-----l
link length ratio are shown in [12]. The main objective of fishi , , .
robots in our project is to monitor and track water pollution 150 . , r
indices in the lake or the river. It is very important to E . ,,
recognize obstacles and avoid them to continue monitoring. 1000
The direction change method follows the method of sharp , il
turn by H. Hu, et al. [3]. This swimmning method imitates the . 50 :
pattern of real fish in nature. The sharp turn method has two . . . . ........i
steps; shrink step and release step. In the shrink step, the tail mot X oe2mt
fin bends to one side very quickly. Quicker shrink makes 0ot 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
sharper turn, and bigger shrink makes bigger direction change. Cm
In the release step, the tail fin unbends at a relatively slow
speed. We change the time and angle of shrink step and the (a) Tracks of 40cm anart with SiX USN motes
time of release step to determine desired change of direction
[7].
We arranged a virtual grid of 4Ocm*4Ocm in the pool. The 250 mote 4 'rmt
objective of this experiment is to check the performance of
our sonar localization method. It is very difficult for a fish 200 &B.
robot to know the exact positional information in water or in * 4 l:
the air. Furthermore, there is no small and cheap localization 1501
system available underwater except big or extremely E 100........ ... t i ¢ , !.
expensive devices. 0 ' !
In this experiment, we implemented more precise ..... j #.=
localization system using USN with sonar sensors. Figure 10 50
shows a fish robot operating inside the swimming pool. The
dimension of the indoor swimming pool is 3.6*2.4*0.35m. 01 mlotel mote 2
We ignore the diffraction and reflection of ultrasonic sound 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
which is produced by the wall of water pool and two obstacles. Cm
One fish robot with a USN mote and sonar sensors swims in (b) Tracks of 60cm apart with four USN motes
th
ol hr hr r i S oe ihasnrsno Fig. 11 Results of uniform tracking of a fish robot by sonar localization
attached to each mote. The directivity angle of sonar sensor is method with 6 or 4 USN motes

84
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