Hydrodynamic loads on underwater robot arms

Computed Load and Sliding Mode control strategies for robots make use of the overall equations of motion. Unfortunately, for robots working in a marine environment, these equations do not provide an accurate control because of a lack of good hydrodynamics data. -- The objective of the thesis is to incorporate the hydrodynamic loads, acting on robot arms working underwater, into the equations of motion. The thesis describes a two-link robot arm model and experimental setup designed for the purpose of gathering hydrodynamic data. -- The thesis also describes the techniques used to analyze the obtained data. These include dimensional analysis and a neural network identification program.