Divers performing underwater work struggle to maintain position in ocean currents, where even small disturbances increase fatigue, reduce precision and raise safety risks. Most existing diving equipment focuses on assisting movement rather than keeping divers stationary, leaving a gap in active stabilization solutions. We designed Mosca, a thruster-assisted wearable device, to actively combat drift caused by underwater currents in real time.
We drew inspiration from the housefly, which maintains stability through rapid, small corrections—the same principle we applied to our design. Mosca consists of a wing-like fixture that attaches to a diver’s back and integrates with standard diving equipment without restricting movement. Thrusters distributed along the fixture generate corrective forces in response to sensor-detected motion changes, enabling the system to dynamically counteract currents.
We evaluated Mosca’s performance through simulations and physical tests replicating real underwater conditions, examining how battery constraints and system response speed affected positional stability. Our results indicate that active system response improves diver control within operational limits of depths up to sixty feet and durations up to one and a half hours. By shifting underwater stability from a passive to an active control problem, we demonstrate that thruster-based stabilization measurably decreases drift during underwater tasks, addressing a gap left by conventional passive diving equipment.
