{
  "abstract": "Spatial flow measurements support underwater navigation, but distributed sensing is constrained by robot size and sensor layout. We use a causal observer to estimate current lateral velocities from a finite history of measurements collected by a single sensing unit, supplying the inputs of a fixed navigation controller. In two-dimensional wake simulations with access to body-frame ambient velocity, this virtual sensing interface reduces simultaneous flow sampling from three points to the robot center. Trained only in a circular-cylinder wake at Re = 100, the flow-history observer achieves 84.4% and 80.6% success at held-out Re = 205 and 240 without retraining. These rates are 7.4 and 4.6 percentage points below direct spatial sensing and more than 30 points above a matched current-only observer. Past flow remains beneficial when past goal and yaw information is available. Across obstacle geometries, performance remains close to direct sensing in square-prism wakes but declines in triangular-prism wakes. Component replacement identifies the lateral velocity difference as control-relevant, while controlled perturbations reveal sensitivity to error persistence. The results demonstrate the closed-loop utility of single-point flow histories under the assumed observation model.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.26753",
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Linhao Jin"
    },
    {
      "name": "Qimin Feng"
    },
    {
      "name": "Peter Gunnarson"
    },
    {
      "name": "Qiang Zhong"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9hhdt0saehpsv.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.26753",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "9hhdt0saehpsv",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.26753",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cs.RO"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.flu-dyn"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2212|Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214097875",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.26753",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-22",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9hhdt0saehpsv.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:23:39Z",
      "native_id": "2609.26753",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.26753"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.flu-dyn",
      "subfield": "fluid-dynamics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Underwater Navigation in Unsteady Flows Using Measurement Histories from a Single Sensing Unit",
  "title_text": "Underwater Navigation in Unsteady Flows Using Measurement Histories from a Single Sensing Unit",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:23:39Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9hhdt0saehpsv",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}