Underwater RoboticsIntermediate
Towards Physical Underwater Robotic Assistance for Scuba Diver Movement in Confined Spaces
Preprint: The authors built RADMCS, a low-cost wearable thruster pack that straps to a scuba tank and gives divers haptic yaw cues to hold a set distance from walls or structures. In pool and ocean tests with eight divers, perceptible guidance required only about 10% of maximum thruster force; with stable visual distance estimates, the robot issued correct left/right corrections. This suggests a practical alternative to bulky exoskeletons for diver safety in confined underwater work.