The fourth edition of Oceanography: A View of the Earth by M. Grant Gross still remains the standard by which other introductory textbooks in oceanography must be measured.  As in previous editions, this new version attempts to introduce students to the oceanic realm and its biological, chemical, geological, and physical processes. For the intended audience, primarily composed of lower division undergraduates, Gross’ textbook succeeds admirably. The basic concepts are communicated to the student in a straightforward manner, with reasonable clarity, and without an overuse of technical jargon. Beginning undergraduates will greatly appreciate the obvious care that Gross has taken to make his book both readable and aesthetically pleasing. The book begins with a chapter on the history of man’s relationship with, and study of, the ocean (“History of Oceanography”), continues with three chapters on geological oceanography (“Ocean Basins,” “Plate Tectonics,” “Sediments”), one chapter on chemical oceanography (“Seawater”), one chapter on the interface between meteorology and oceanography (“Atmosphere and Climate”), four chapters  on physical oceanography (“Ocean Structure,” “Ocean Circulation,” “Waves,” “Tides and Tidal Currents”), one chapter on various aspects of coastal oceanography (“The Coastal Ocean”), three  chapters  on biological oceanography (“Biological Ocean Processes,” “Open Ocean Organisms,” “Bottom-Dwelling Organisms”), and concludes with seven useful and informative appendices. As with any textbook, some chapters are better than others. I found the chapters on geological and physical oceanography superior to the others, perhaps due to the author’s background or perhaps due to my own biases. In either case, most chapters benefit from an excellent selection of figures that illustrate clearly the patterns and processes described in the text. Overall, it is difficult to fault the text in any of the chapters, especially when you consider the breadth of coverage and the intended audience. Throughout the four editions of Oceanography: A View of the Earth, the text and figures have benefited greatly from Gross’s responsiveness to the comments and criticisms of students, teachers, and colleagues. Sincc I used the first edition of this textbook as a beginning undergraduate, I still remember the poor quality of many of the original illustrations. Although a few still remain (particularly in chapter 14, “Bottom-Dwelling Organisms”), most of the older illustrations have been replaced by greatly improved figures in subsequent editions. The aesthetic appeal of the book has improved steadily with each iteration in its 15-year history. If I must register a major complaint about illustrations in the fourth edition, it has to be directed at the color plates. Color plates are expensive, and certainty have an effect on the final price to the student. In this case, however, the plates are beautiful as well as informative (except in the case of plate 3 1, which misidentifies a ctenophore as a sea wasp), and clearly worthy of inclusion. Why then did the author or publishers choose to place the satellite and remote-sensing plates in the chapter on sediments, and the plates illustrating pelagic animals in the chapter on waves? Absurd! As with any textbook in its fourth edition, Oceanography: A View of the Earth has been successful in exploiting a particular niche in the educational book market. For a basic qualitative introduction to oceanography, this textbook is without peer in giving firstor secondyear undergraduates their first taste of the ocean sciences. Certainly science and engineering students may require additional quantitative lecture material to supplement Gross’s book, but I find it remarkable that a single textbook can be as appropriate for the nonscience major with an interest in  the ocean as it is to the science major contemplating a career in oceanography or ocean engineering. Such versatility should discourage (or preferably challenge) competitors and insure a strong marketplace for this book in the years to come. *

Oceanography: A view of the earth

Fully 3D printed multi-material soft bio-inspired frog for underwater synchronous swimming

This article reviews remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROUV) and its different types focusing on the control systems. This study offers a brief introduction of unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV)...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0020294020952483

A review of different designs and control models of remotely operated underwater vehicle

Biological fish can create high forward swimming speed due to change of thrust/drag area of pectoral fins between power stroke and recovery stroke in rowing mode. In this paper, we proposed a novel type of folding pectoral fins for the fish robot, which provides a simple approach in generating effective thrust only through one degree of freedom of fin actuator. Its structure consists of two elemental fin panels for each pectoral fin that connects to a hinge base through the flexible joints. The Morison force model is adopted to discover the relationship of the dynamic interaction between fin panels and surrounding fluid. An experimental platform for the robot motion using the pectoral fin with different flexible joints was built to validate the proposed design. The results express that the performance of swimming velocity and turning radius of the robot are enhanced effectively. The forward swimming velocity can reach 0.231 m/s (0.58 BL/s) at the frequency near 0.75 Hz. By comparison, we found an accord between the proposed dynamic model and the experimental behavior of the robot. The attained results can be used to design controllers and optimize performances of the robot propelled by the folding pectoral fins.

Dynamic Analysis of a Robotic Fish Propelled by Flexible Folding Pectoral Fins

Advances of soft robotics enabled better mimicking of biological creatures and closer realization of animals' motion in the robotics field. The biological creature's movement has morphology and flexibility that is problematic deportation to a bio-inspired robot. This paper aims to study the ability to mimic turtle motion using a soft pneumatic actuator (SPA) as a turtle flipper limb. SPA's behavior is simulated using finite element analysis to design turtle flipper at 22 different geometrical configurations, and the simulations are conducted on a large pressure range (0.11-0.4 Mpa). The simulation results are validated using vision feedback with respect to varying the air pillow orientation angle. Consequently, four SPAs with different inclination angles are selected to build a bio-mimetic turtle, which is tested at two different driving configurations. The nonlinear dynamics of soft actuators, which is challenging to model the motion using traditional modeling techniques affect the turtle's motion. Conclusively, according to kinematics behavior, the turtle motion path is modeled using the Echo State Network (ESN) method, one of the reservoir computing techniques. The ESN models the turtle path with respect to the actuators' rotation motion angle with maximum root-mean-square error of [Formula: see text]. The turtle is designed to enhance the robot interaction with living creatures by mimicking their limbs' flexibility and the way of their motion.

/pdf/modelling-and-implementation-of-soft-bio-mimetic-turtle-2o8516yh24.pdf

Modelling and implementation of soft bio-mimetic turtle using echo state network and soft pneumatic actuators

An underwater manipulator is essential for underwater robotic sampling and other service operations. Conventional rigid body underwater manipulators generally required substantial size and weight, ...

/pdf/an-underwater-robotic-manipulator-with-soft-bladders-and-14bzhe1xhg.pdf

An Underwater Robotic Manipulator with Soft Bladders and Compact Depth-Independent Actuation

Ostraciiform body/caudal fish locomotion requires high-frequency oscillation of the caudal fin, yielding negligible body oscillations. It is the most ideal form of biomimetic locomotion for underwater robots where body-stabilization is required for photography or manipulation applications. This letter presents a two-segment caudal fin design with substantial improvements over existing single-segment fins. The proposed fin helped reducing drag, increasing resonant frequency, and achieving a wide controllable range of thrust forces. The design, modeling, fabrication, and validation of an Ostraciiform robot with the proposed caudal fin are presented in detail. Over 1200 test trials on six fin designs were compared, showing nearly three-times higher resonant frequency and 12% thrust force increase over single-segment homogeneous fin. It is also demonstrated that the peak frequency could be selected via mechanical fin designs, enabling customized caudal fin design according to applications.

Ostraciiform Underwater Robot With Segmented Caudal Fin

Cephalopods could simultaneously achieve both accurate positioning and agile bodily maneuvers by coordinating the mantle and the funnel, which is ideal for underwater robotic applications toward a compact propulsor with combined thrust vectoring and regulation. For a wide range of underwater applications from videography to manipulation, this novel approach would offer a compact and integrated alternative to the state-of-the-art with multiple vectoring thrusters. This article presents a biomimetic soft-robotic siphon (BSRS) as the propulsor unit, consisting of a novel central flow-regulative duct (CFRD) encircled by three circumferential siphon actuation muscles (SAMs). Hydraulic pressurization of the SAMs could enable both thrust vectoring by deflecting the BSRS and flow regulation by proportionally alternating the orifice of the CFRD. The design, modeling, and fabrication of the BSRS are presented in detail. Experiments using a prototype BSRS were conducted for validating the performances of deflection deformation and flow regulation, showing bending range of over 180° and flow-restricting capability of up to 100%. A burst effect was achieved with the ability of exceeding the constant flow rate by up to 50%, enabling tremendous thrust increase in very short time. This work proves the feasibility of combining omnidirectional deflection with flow regulation within a soft-robotic mechanism, paving the way to compact water-jetting propulsion for underwater robots.

A Cephalopod-Inspired Soft-Robotic Siphon for Thrust Vectoring and Flow Rate Regulation.

TMD case requires correct and sufficient guide to the patients’ mandible movement. It is the most ideal application where robotic device is demanded for the movement training apart from the surgical operations done by the doctors. This paper presents a two-soft-actuator robotic joint design applied on an exoskeleton soft wearable device with substantial improvements over the existing training device. The soft device helps reduce tremendous weight of the device and reserves the system compliance considering patients’ comfort and safety, which brings highly capacity of wearing and self-training. The pneumatic-control-based trajectory planning enables customization of the device for the purpose of satisfying accommodating patients’ individual difference. The design, modeling, fabrication, and validation of an exoskeleton soft wearable device for TMD are presented in detail. Both on-table unit and the on-skull testing are conducted and discussed, showing the remarkable ability of guiding the mandible to move according to the real human nature, paving the way for further clinical applications of such disease.

Runzhi Zhang

Papers

An Underwater Robotic Manipulator with Soft Bladders and Compact Depth-Independent Actuation

Ostraciiform Underwater Robot With Segmented Caudal Fin

A Cephalopod-Inspired Soft-Robotic Siphon for Thrust Vectoring and Flow Rate Regulation.

A Soft Approach to the Exoskeleton Wearable Device for Temporomandibular Disorder (TMD)