The underwater thermal glider utilizes ocean thermal energy to change its buoyancy, which enables it to ascend and descend. A Phase Change Material （PCM） as the working fluid inside the thermal engine tubes is sensitive to the surrounding seawater temperature, whose effects are different with the various displacements and gliding angles of the glider. In this paper, the effects of the displacement and the gliding angle on the performance of the thermal engine were studied numerically and experimentally. On this basis, the ways to eliminate the negative effect of a thermocline on the performance of the thermal engine were obtained. The results show that the displacement and gliding angle affect the transition time of the PCM. There exist the threshold values of the displacement and gliding angle for the normal work of thermal engine. There are two means of eliminating the negative effect of a thermocline on the performance of the thermal engine and improving glider performance： one is to increase the displacement, and the other is to decrease the absolute value of the gliding angle. There is also another better way to improve glider performance.
Underwater gliders are highly efficient,buoyancy-driven,and winged autonomous underwater vehicles.Their dynamics are multivariable nonlinear systems with unstable internal dynamics and thus their motion control is a significant challenge.To improve the inherent efficiency and enhance the behavior of the underwater glider over a wide operating regime,a nonlinear feedforward and feedback controller was developed.The nonlinear feedforward control design is based on a new stable inversion technique which determines a causal and bounded solution for the unstable internal dynamics.The feedback control law was designed by a quadratic optimal control method.Simulation results show that the derived control system is able to deal with nonminimum phase system and successfully achieves the tracking of planned output trajectories from initial to final conditions.Furthermore,the control effort is very low,which means the glider with limited power storage has longer range and higher endurance.
