TY - UNPB
T1 - Towards reliable subsea object recovery: a simulation study of an auv with a suction-actuated end effector
AU - Grimaldi, Michele
AU - Maeda, Yosaku
AU - Kakami, Hitoshi
AU - Carlucho, Ignacio
AU - Petillot, Yvan
AU - Inoue, Tomoya
PY - 2026/1/3
Y1 - 2026/1/3
N2 - Autonomous object recovery in the hadal zone is challenging due to extreme hydrostatic pressure, limited visibility and currents, and the need for precise manipulation at full ocean depth. Field experimentation in such environments is costly, high-risk, and constrained by limited vehicle availability, making early validation of autonomous behaviors difficult. This paper presents a simulation-based study of a complete autonomous subsea object recovery mission using a Hadal Small Vehicle (HSV) equipped with a three-degree-of-freedom robotic arm and a suction-actuated end effector. The Stonefish simulator is used to model realistic vehicle dynamics, hydrodynamic disturbances, sensing, and interaction with a target object under hadal-like conditions. The control framework combines a world-frame PID controller for vehicle navigation and stabilization with an inverse-kinematics-based manipulator controller augmented by acceleration feed-forward, enabling coordinated vehicle - manipulator operation. In simulation, the HSV autonomously descends from the sea surface to 6,000 m, performs structured seafloor coverage, detects a target object, and executes a suction-based recovery. The results demonstrate that high-fidelity simulation provides an effective and low-risk means of evaluating autonomous deep-sea intervention behaviors prior to field deployment.
AB - Autonomous object recovery in the hadal zone is challenging due to extreme hydrostatic pressure, limited visibility and currents, and the need for precise manipulation at full ocean depth. Field experimentation in such environments is costly, high-risk, and constrained by limited vehicle availability, making early validation of autonomous behaviors difficult. This paper presents a simulation-based study of a complete autonomous subsea object recovery mission using a Hadal Small Vehicle (HSV) equipped with a three-degree-of-freedom robotic arm and a suction-actuated end effector. The Stonefish simulator is used to model realistic vehicle dynamics, hydrodynamic disturbances, sensing, and interaction with a target object under hadal-like conditions. The control framework combines a world-frame PID controller for vehicle navigation and stabilization with an inverse-kinematics-based manipulator controller augmented by acceleration feed-forward, enabling coordinated vehicle - manipulator operation. In simulation, the HSV autonomously descends from the sea surface to 6,000 m, performs structured seafloor coverage, detects a target object, and executes a suction-based recovery. The results demonstrate that high-fidelity simulation provides an effective and low-risk means of evaluating autonomous deep-sea intervention behaviors prior to field deployment.
KW - cs.RO
KW - Hadal robotics
KW - AUV
KW - Underwater manipulation
KW - Suction end-effector
KW - Marine robotics simulation
U2 - 10.48550/arXiv.2601.01106
DO - 10.48550/arXiv.2601.01106
M3 - Preprint
BT - Towards reliable subsea object recovery: a simulation study of an auv with a suction-actuated end effector
PB - arXiv
ER -
