2012 Fifth International Joint Conference on Computational Sciences and Optimization

Grid Search Optimized SVM Method for Dish-like Underwater Robot

Attitude Prediction
Tian Wang, Xiufen Ye, Lei Wang

Heyi Li

College of Automation,
Harbin Engineering University,
Harbin, 15001,China
E-mail: wangtian.miracle@qq.com

College of Underwater Acoustic Engineering,

Harbin Engineering University,
Harbin, 15001,China
E-mail: liheyi910924@gmail.com
and more accurate. The traditional SVM is mainly settle the
problem of SISO and is not suitable for underwater robot
with MIMO, close coupled, under-actuate, time variant and
unstable complex dynamic system. To face this issue, dishlike underwater robot attitude MIMO identifier based on
SVM is proposed, The kernel function of this identifier is
RBF .
As to improve the accuracy and reliability of SVM, the
ultimate model would have a decline in the accuracy,
generalization ability and cause over learning if SVM is
under high study accuracy. To solve this problem, the
suitable balance factor C and kernel functional parameter g
are in significant position to get the best result of
identification. In this paper the grid search (GS) was used as
optimization of parameter. In the end, the comparison was
made with the results of GA and PSO optimized SVM.

AbstractThe control of dish-like underwater robot motion is

complex. It involves many kinds of influencing factors and its
also a nonlinear process. The model of attitude motion control
is very important for the accuracy control and self adapting
predictive control. For establishing the attitude motion model
and predicting the attitude, SVM algorithm was used to
construct a MIMO identifier in this paper. Moreover, in order
to improve the effect of the identification and prediction, the
grid search method was adopted to optimize the key parameter
C and g in SVM. At last the effects were contrasted with GA
and PSO optimized SVM algorithm by the data from the
experiments in the pool, the results proved the superiority of
grid search method in both calculating time and optimizing
results. The results show the well performance of this GS-SVM
on the identification and prediction for the attitude of dish-like
underwater robot.
Keywords- Prediction; SVM; MIMO; Dish-like Underwater
robot; Grid Search

I.

II.

This paper presented a new type of underwater robot

structure in the condition of closed underwater robot profile.
And the dish hydrodynamic shape makes the robot a good
hydrodynamic performance and the ability of movement
almost in any direction. The robot is drove by 4 thrusters laid
in vector in the control surface and the included angle of
control surface and inertial coordinates by the moment
caused by the change of relative position of gravity center
and buoyant center. The 2 slide mass is used to change the
relative position. With the results, the robot can move in 5
DOF. The structure of robot is shown in Fig.1.
As shown in Fig.1, the coordinate systems O-XbYbZb are
the body-fixed coordinates on the dish underwater robot.
Origin point O is the center of the mass and geometric
center. Slider block m1 and m2 move separately at coordinate
axes OXb1 and OZb2, and they make change of the position of
center of mass. The frame O-XvYvZv parallels to the frame OXb1Yb1Zb1 and O-Xb2Yb2Zb2 , the Yb1 and Yb are coincident. The
distance of plane XbOYb to plane Xb1OYb1 or plane Xb2OYb2
is ymb . The thrusters are laid in vector and act on the center of
mass, and the sum of thrust is denoted as T , the sum of
moment caused by thrusters is denoted as MT. is the
included angle of thrusting line and axes OXb.

INTRODUCTION

Underwater robot with the properties of flexible free

degrees, non-liner and high tense coupling[1] requires the
high-accuracy dynamic model to achieve the optimum
control.
Generally, the major methods for underwater robot
modeling are modeling by mechanism and system
identification. Nevertheless, considering the complexity of
modeling by mechanism[2-3] and model obtained by this
method is not suitable for applying in the control system
directly, the model correction is needed by experiment
repeatedly. The traditional system identification ways such
as the Least Square method[4], the Gradient Calibration
method, the Maximum Likelihood method[5] cant attribute
the demand of nonlinear MIMO problem. The unsuitability
of ANN[6] is resulted as the network structure is hard to
determine, Generalization ability is poor, large amount
samples is demanded.
By contrast, the Support Vector Machine(SVM) is
proposed as a modern technique[7] based on Statistical
Learning Theory and Structural Risk Minimization Inductive
Principle to identify the structure of model. The SVM is a
kind of convex quadratic optimization problem, it has simple
structure, strong generalization ability and the suitable
solution of small samples and non-liner high dimension
problems, the global optimal solution can be found quicker
978-0-7695-4690-2/12 $26.00 2012 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/CSO.2012.189

INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS OF ROBOT

839

Figure 1. The structure diagram of robot.

Apparently, with the analyses above, the inputs of robot

are the force of 4 thrusters T1, T2, T3, T4 and the movement
distance of centroid adjust mass xb, zb. The outputs are the
included angle , , of body-fixed coordinates and inertial
coordinates. The depth is negligible because the experiment
is conducted in shallow water. Underwater robots
description of state space correspond to the equation below

x = f ( x ,T1 ,T2 ,T3 ,T4 , xb , zb )

y = g ( x ,T1 ,T2 ,T3 ,T4 , xb , zb )

The non-linear model after discretization is

( k +1) = f ( ( k ), ( k ), ( k ),T ( k ),T ( k ),T ( k ),T ( k ), x ( k ), z ( k ))

1
1
2
3
4
b
b

( k +1) = f 2 ( ( k ), ( k ), ( k ),T1 ( k ),T2 ( k ),T3 ( k ),T4 ( k ), xb ( k ), zb ( k ))

( k +1) = f3 ( ( k ), ( k ), ( k ),T1 ( k ),T2 ( k ),T3 ( k ),T4 ( k ), xb ( k ), zb ( k ))

III.

(1)

THE DESIGN OF SVM IDENTIFIER

(2)

( )

f ( x, ) = x + b

Refer to the reference[10], a SVM based MIMO dish-like

underwater robot attitude prediction system for the angles of
pitch, roll and yaw is proposed, the structure is shown in
Fig.2.

(3)

Add to the given training sample set

T=

{( x1 , y1 ),( x2 , y 2 ),,( xn , y n )}

Where xi X = R l , yi Y = R m
And n , l , m is the quantity of samples and the dimension
of the input and output.
Assuming

1 n
Remp ( ,b) = yi ( x) b
n i =1

(4)

and b should be calculated in the condition of

restriction based on the minimum of empirical risk to satisfy
the slack variable i , i* ( i =1,,n) with the equation below
n
n
*
F ( , ) = i* + i
i =1
i =1

Figure 2. Prediction structure block diagram of SVM identifier.

(( ) )
(( ) )

w x +b y +

i
i
i

s.t . yi w xi +b +i

* 0,i =1,, n
,

i i

In Fig.2, u(k)=[T1, T2, T3, T4, xb(k), zb(k)] represents the

4 outputs of the thruster respectively at the k moment. xb(k),
zb(k) are the displacement distances of 2 attitude adjusted
mass. v(k)=[ (k-1), (k-1), (k-1)] is the output at the k-1
moment .The outputs of this identifier is (k+1), (k+1),
(k+1), they are pitch, roll and yaw angles.
First of all, to face the problem of linear regression,
regression function was estimated in the linear regression set
according to equation (3).

(5)

(6)

To build Lagrange function according to the equation

(6) , that is

840

n
n
L( k ) , b , * , , * , ,C * , , * = (*k ) + ( k ) i ( k ) yi ( k ) ( k ) xi ( k ) b( k ) + ( k ) +i ( k )

i =1
i =1
n *
*

i ( k ) ( k ) xi ( k ) + b( k ) yi ( k ) + ( k ) +i ( k )

i =1
n
C(*k )

( k ) ( k ) i*( k )i*( k ) + i ( k )i ( k )
c
2 n(k )
i =1

(7)
The solution of the equation (7) requires complex
optimization, which could be switched to the parameter C to

T
1 n
*
xi ( k ) x j ( k ) a j ( k ) a*j ( k )
m 2 i ( k ) i ( k )

*
=
i
,
j
1
min , =
n
n
k =1
+ i ( k ) + i*( k ) yi ( k ) i ( k ) i*( k )

i =1
i =1

(
(

*
i ( k ) i ( k ) = 0

i =1
s .t .

*
0i ( k ) ,i ( k ) C( k ) ,i =1,,n ,k =1,,m
i ( k ) , i*( k )

solve the problem of equation (8) with the restriction of

condition (9) the convex optimization.

)(
)

)(

(KKT).The

n
f( k ) ( x ) = i ( k ) +i*( k ) xi ( k ) x( k ) + b( k )
i =1

)(

) (

)(

(9)

( )

SVM

(15)
The kernel function parameter g > 0 , which could
approximate any non-liner relation easily.

(10)

IV.

(11)

Corresponding that

(
(

)(
)(

)(

GRID SEARCH OPTIMIZATION

A. Grid Search
The amount of support vectors, threshold b, NZLagrangian multipliers can be obtained through
identification. The penalty factor C and RBF parameter g
must be provided before identification. They are the key
factors of machine learning, predictive ability and
generalization ability.
This paper used grid search algorithm(GS). The GS is a
traditional digital plan method, its a kind of exhaustion
method. Theres no special requirement of objection
function, it has a good effect to solve constrained nonlinear
extreme value problems. The GS will mesh in the pre-set
range, the grid intersections are correspond to objective
function values. Then the optimal value of objective function
will be searched in the feasible intersections by rules, the
parameters correspond to this optimal point will be the
optimal.
The advantages of the grid search method is that it can
simultaneously search multiple coupling parameters. This
method is the search for parameter combinations, therefore it
avoids the coupling of multiple solution problems that may
arise between the multi-parameter. So the optimal evaluation
function value corresponds to the optimal combination of
parameters(C and g).

(12)

)
)

*
f(1) ( x ) = i (1) +i (1) K xi (1) i x(1) + b(1)

i =1

n
f ( x )=
i (2) +i*(2) K xi (2) i x(2) + b(2)
(2)
i
1
=

*
f ( m ) ( x ) = i ( m ) +i ( m ) K xi ( m ) i x( m ) + b( m )

i =1

(14)

2
K xi , x = exp g xi x

K x ,x

The RBF is used here as equation (15)

Where ( i j ) is the kernel function and the regression

estimate function of MIMO-SVM conveyed that
n
f ( x )= i +i* K xi i x +b
i =1

)(

1 l
bk = yk i* i K xi , xk + sgn(k* k )

l k =1

i =1

Aiming at the solution of the problem, kernel function

was used to make the non-linear data mapped to the high
dimension space to regression. Thus the equation can be
drawn below
min , *
T
1 n
= i i* K xi , x j j *j
2 i , j =1
n
n
+ i +i* yi i i*
i =1
i =1

(8)

calculated by the equation (8) (9) based on the

condition of Karush-Kuhn-tucker
regression estimation equation is

(13)

B. Optimization Routine
The MSE of SVM output and samples is used as
evaluation function. The optimal C and g can be
obtained when the MSE is minimum. Crossvalidation is used to verify the MSE.

Where, the threshold value b is the constant as the

equation (14) .Then we can got the model by substitution of
the support vectors and the parameters.

841

Set the grid search region for C, g as (0,100) and

(0,10).
To process the grid search.
To draw the contour map and choose the best
parameters accordingly.
V.

C. The Results of Experiment

Sample data normalization was made before the model
identification to support the training of SVM.
The SVM recognition capability of identification and the
predicted effects could be determined by the mean square
error (MSE) and the squared correlation coefficient r 2 .
Here are 120 groups of stable data selected in all about
2328 groups including the training data set 100 groups and
the test data set 20 groups. Contour map could be obtained
by grid search. As an example of SVM1, the contour map of
mesh optimal is drawn in Fig.5. And the optimum value of
C and g can be found at the minimum point of MSE.

EXPERIMENT

A. Experiment Environment
The parameters of experiment pool is 17.3m x2m
x1.7m(length x wide x deep). And the major purpose of
experiment is to obtain the attitude angles of the robot (pitch,
roll, yaw), moreover to obtain the offset of the adjusted
centroid mass, depth and the outputs of thrusters. The thrust
force was calculated by the driving voltage of pump and the
position of centroid adjusting mass was reckoned by the
steps of stepping motor after the power initialization. The
attitude angles were obtained by the AHRS (MTi, made by
Xsense, Holland) deployed in the robot. This refresh rate of
this AHRS is 120Hz, the accuracy of roll and pith <0.5, yaw
angle<1. The attitude data would be record in the computer.
The Fig. 3. below is the appearance of the robot

Figure 5. The contour map of grid optimization

The SVM1 effect drawings of the comparison between

prediction results and the ones of the genetic algorithm or
the prediction outcomes of PSO to examine the
identification accuracy is shown as the Fig.6. And The
performance comparison is shown in TABLE I. It can be
seen that GS is much better than GA in the view of
performance, but in the contrast of PSO that GS is more
approximately with the experimental data, in spite of the Dvalue around 0.004 which contributed even non impact on
the attitude control, however SVM calculation time based
on PSO is 3.5 times of that used by GS-SVM. The GS-SVM
is more efficient.
As the data indicated , GS-SVM is better than GA-SVM
and PSO-SVM. Generally, some mechanism modeling
methods r 2 is around 81%. To conclude, this model is well
performed in the dish-like robot simulation and prediction
control.

Figure 3. The robot appearance

B. Data Acquisition
In the pool of the experiment, the robot is adjusted to
suspend in the water. The attitude of robot is detected at the
condition of changing thrust force and moving the mass
alternately. There are 7 inputs and 3 outputs which were
recorded at the sampling frequency of 5Hz.
The testing picture of the robot in the water is shown in
Fig.4.

TABLE I.
Method

Figure 4. Pool experiment

842

PERFORMANCE CONTRAST TABLE

Performance

MSE

r2

Time(s)

GE

0.007934

0.99154

1.5

GA

0.067721

0.29528

2.1

PSO

0.006326

0.99119

5.5

high accuracy and instantaneity of prediction. This would

contribute a lot to the self-adaption control and prediction
control study.
REFERENCES
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[2]
a) GS-SVM Contrast Figure

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]
b) GA-SVM Contrast figure
[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]
c) PSO-SVM Contrast figure
Figure 6. Contrast figure of SVM1 fitting data

VI.

[11]

CONCLUSION

In this paper, the characteristics of this novel type of

underwater robot was analysed. To combine these
characteristics, the MIMO-SVM optimized by Grid Search
Method was proposed. The similarity of prediction and the
experiment data could attain 99.15% at least with the
computation speed of 1.5 s. These two aspects of parameters
were both better than that of GA and PSO optimization. The
model obtained by this GS-SVM attaining the superiority of

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