Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    Design and Evaluation of End-Effectors for Autonomous Sampling
    (2008-09-16) Lewandowski, Craig Michael; Akin, David; Aerospace Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Autonomous underwater vehicles are becoming increasingly prevalent, and their emergence will allow for the execution of previously unfeasible underwater missions. These missions include seeking naval mines, navigation and mapping of ocean features, and sampling on the ocean floor at extreme depths. One method to achieve this latter objective involves the attachment of a robotic manipulator to an underwater vehicle and use of the manipulator to collect specimens and deposit them in containers. This thesis focuses on the design and testing of an end-effector to be used on such a manipulator. End-effectors previously utilized in underwater robotics were evaluated during the conceptualization of the selected tool design. These evaluations in conjunction with manipulator interface requirements were used to produce the end-effector design that was constructed and subsequently tested. In addition, sample containers were designed and fabricated, and kinematics software used to determine sample container position, orientation, and quantity was developed.