Design and Simulation of a Collaborative Propulsion System for the Underwater Robot

Li, Yaxin; Tian, Chuan; Wang, Yu; Gao, Peng; Ma, Xinyu

doi:10.35840/2631-5106/4119

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…A third proposal for an RMC is introduced in [ More recently, in [115] a new underwater robot was proposed using a pumpedwater-jet primary thruster assisted by two auxiliary S-RMCT, each one dotted with 3-DOF ( Figure 25a). This S-RMCT is also based on the spherical robotic wrist joint presented in [68,69] (Figure 18), which was also used in the proposals of Figure 14b ( [64]) and Figure 22a ([112]).…”

Section: Advances In Reconfigurable Magnetic Couplingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advances in Reconfigurable Vectorial Thrusters for Adaptive Underwater Robots

Gasparoto

Chocron

Benbouzid

et al. 2021

JMSE

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Manoeuvrability is one of the essential keys in the development of improved autonomous underwater vehicles for challenging missions. In the last years, more researches were dedicated to the development of new hulls shapes and thrusters to assure more manoeuvrability. The present review explores various enabling technologies used to implement the vectorial thrusters (VT), based on water-jet or propellers. The proposals are analysed in terms of added degrees of freedom, mechanisms, number of necessary actuators, water-tightness, electromagnetomechanical complexity, feasibility, etc. The usage of magnetic coupling thrusters (conventional or reconfigurable) is analysed in details since they can assure the development of competitive full waterproof reconfigurable thrusters, which is a frictionless, flexible, safe, and low-maintenance solution. The current limitations (as for instance the use of non conductive hull) are discussed and ideas are proposed for the improvement of this new generation of underwater thrusters, as extending the magnetic coupling usage to obtain a fully contactless vector thrust transmission.

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Section: Advances In Reconfigurable Magnetic Couplingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This S-RMCT is also based on the spherical robotic wrist joint presented in [68,69] (Figure 18), which was also used in the proposals of Figure 14b ( [64]) and Figure 22a ([112]). The main differences between the S-RMCT in [115] and that one in [5] are:…”

Section: Advances In Reconfigurable Magnetic Couplingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in Reconfigurable Vectorial Thrusters for Adaptive Underwater Robots

Gasparoto

Chocron

Benbouzid

et al. 2021

JMSE

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“…However, the oscillation caused by the valve pulse width modulation control may cause errors in the heading. An integrated high-speed valve switching and pump output control scheme were developed and corresponding control algorithms were proposed in [22]. Both pulse width and pulse height were controlled in a coordinated manner so that the oscillation due to the switching could be reduced.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2019

Int J Robot Eng

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The design of propulsion system is a very critical task because it determines the performance of underwater robots, such as maneuverability and endurance and so on. Generally, it is a challenge to develop a propulsion system which can make tradeoff among multiple degree-of-freedom (DOF) motions, simple and compact structure and low power consumption. Thus, we are motivated to propose a collaborative propulsion system for the underwater robot and its unique reconfigurable structure makes vectorial propulsion possible. The novel collaborative propulsion system consists of a Coanda effect based primary system and a magnetic coupling based auxiliary system. Based on Coanda effect, the primary system can provide sufficient thrust in four directions by only one water-jet. Meanwhile, as the assistance of the primary thruster, the auxiliary system can realize omnidirectional thrust to balance the robot whole body and meet the high requirement of maneuverability. In this paper, we present the mechanical structure of the propulsion system in detail and explain specific design of the fluidic valve by theoretical analysis. To evaluate the performance, simulations about jet attachment effect and magnetic coupling characteristic have been conducted at last so as to lay a solid foundation for the feasibility of such novel propulsion system.

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Design and experimental evaluation of the novel undulatory propulsors for biomimetic underwater robots

Li¹,

Chen²,

Wang³

et al. 2021

Bioinspir. Biomim.

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Inspired by wide and elongated fins of aquatic species, robotic undulatory propulsors are developed to achieve advanced maneuverability. Through biological observation, undulatory fins are typically comprised of more than 100 fin rays to propagate continuous and diverse propulsive waves for agile locomotion. Due to practical engineering restrictions, most robotic undulatory propulsors are characterized by limit number of long fin rays which intersect flexible fin surfaces as backbones and partition them into multiple membrane-like segments. As spatially discrete surfaces affect waves traveling and thrust efficiency, a novel undulatory propulsor has been proposed in this paper. By taking advantage of an arc-shaped fin surface and its material properties, the newly developed undulatory propulsor is equipped with a series of custom designed fin rays, which are only fastened on the inner edge of fin surface so that the unconstrained part is flexural passively to form a smooth fin profile. To discuss appropriate fin surface configurations for such newly developed propulsor, a series of experiments have been conducted to explore the effects of fin surface material, thickness and morphology on thrust and power consumption. Results reveal the fin surface made of nitrile rubber with 2 mm thickness and aspect ratio of 0.33 is highly recommended when taking into account both propulsive forces and loads suffered by fin rays’ actuators. To validate the improvement of thrust efficiency, comparison experiments have been carried out between the conventional and the newly developed undulatory propulsors. The findings indicate smooth sinusoid-like fin profiles contribute to wave propagation, which makes the newly developed undulatory fin outperform the conventional one. Finally, a rajiform-inspired robot prototype has been introduced to assess multi-DOFs maneuverability. The experiments show the biomimetic robot can achieve diverse locomotion including swimming forward, turning in-place and rising/diving propelled by a pair of undulatory propulsors.

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Design and Simulation of a Collaborative Propulsion System for the Underwater Robot

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Advances in Reconfigurable Vectorial Thrusters for Adaptive Underwater Robots

Advances in Reconfigurable Vectorial Thrusters for Adaptive Underwater Robots

Untitled

Design and experimental evaluation of the novel undulatory propulsors for biomimetic underwater robots

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