Fumin Zhang

Marine robots are being increasingly deployed in environmental sensing and ocean observation applications. The key challenges in mobile ocean sensing are to design and control the motion of the robots to collect Lagrangian data over a large spatial domain, and then convert these Lagrangian data streams into Eulerian spatial-temporal maps for scientific and operational benefits. This monograph introduces cyber maritime cycle as a collection of feedback loops where the flow of data is regulated by functional blocks of autonomy. As a new development, the split between the data-driven cycle and the geo-scientific modeling cycle allows the separation of data streams with different time and spatial scales. This separation allows the conversion between Lagrangian and Eulerian data representations to happen more frequently for navigation of marine robots. This monograph introduces the overall systems architecture and patterns for data streams that enables autonomy for marine robots towards environmental sensing applications. It is an ideal reference for researchers, students or practitioners already doing research in this field, or planning to do so.

The design of nonlinear controllers for mechanical systems has been an ex­ tremely active area of research in the last two decades. From a theoretical point of view, this attention can be attributed to their interesting dynamic behavior, which makes them suitable benchmarks for nonlinear control the­ oreticians. On the other hand, recent technological advances have produced many real-world engineering applications that require the automatic con­ trol of mechanical systems. the mechanism for de­ Often, Lyapunov-based techniques are utilized as veloping different nonlinear control structures for mechanical systems. The allure of the Lyapunov-based framework for mechanical system control de­ sign can most likely be assigned to the fact that Lyapunov function candi­ dates can often be crafted from physical insight into the mechanics of the system. That is, despite the nonlinearities, couplings, and/or the flexible effects associated with the system, Lyapunov-based techniques can often be used to analyze the stability of the closed-loop system by using an energy­ like function as the Lyapunov function candidate. In practice, the design procedure often tends to be an iterative process that results in the death of many trees. That is, the controller and energy-like function are often constructed in concert to foster an advantageous stability property and/or robustness property. Fortunately, over the last 15 years, many system the­ ory and control researchers have labored in this area to produce various design tools that can be applied in a variety of situations.

The design of nonlinear controllers for mechanical systems has been an ex­ tremely active area of research in the last two decades. From a theoretical point of view, this attention can be attributed to their interesting dynamic behavior, which makes them suitable benchmarks for nonlinear control the­ oreticians. On the other hand, recent technological advances have produced many real-world engineering applications that require the automatic con­ trol of mechanical systems. the mechanism for de­ Often, Lyapunov-based techniques are utilized as veloping different nonlinear control structures for mechanical systems. The allure of the Lyapunov-based framework for mechanical system control de­ sign can most likely be assigned to the fact that Lyapunov function candi­ dates can often be crafted from physical insight into the mechanics of the system. That is, despite the nonlinearities, couplings, and/or the flexible effects associated with the system, Lyapunov-based techniques can often be used to analyze the stability of the closed-loop system by using an energy­ like function as the Lyapunov function candidate. In practice, the design procedure often tends to be an iterative process that results in the death of many trees. That is, the controller and energy-like function are often constructed in concert to foster an advantageous stability property and/or robustness property. Fortunately, over the last 15 years, many system the­ ory and control researchers have labored in this area to produce various design tools that can be applied in a variety of situations.