Development of underwater electric manipulator based on interventional autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)

In applications such as marine rescue,marine science,archaeology,and offshore industries,autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs)are frequently used for survey missions and monitoring tasks,with most operations being performed by manned submersibles or remotely operated vehicles(ROVs)equipped with robotic arms,as they can be operated remotely for days without problems.However,they require expensive marine vessels and specialist pilots to operate them.Scientists exploring oceans are no longer satisfied with the use of manned submersibles and ROVs.There is a growing desire for seabed exploration to be performed using smarter,more flexible,and automated equipment.By improving the field operation and intervention capability of AUVs,large-scale and long-range seafloor exploration and sampling can be performed without the support of a mother ship,making it a more effective,economical,convenient,and rapid means of seafloor exploration and sampling operations,and playing a critical role in marine resource exploration.In this study,we explored the integration technology of underwater electric robotic arms and AUVs and designed a new set of electric manipulators suitable for water depths greater than 500 m.The reliability of the key components was analyzed by finite element analysis and,based on the theory of robot kinematics and dynamics,simulations were performed to verify the reliability of the key components.Experiments were conducted on land and underwater,trajectory tracking experiments were completed,and the experimental data in air and water were compared and analyzed.Finally,the objectives for further research on the autonomous control of the manipulator underwater were proposed.

Development of A Deep Ocean Electric Autonomous Manipulator

This paper describes an underwater 3500 m electric manipulator （named Huahai-4E, stands for four functions deep ocean electric manipulator in China）, which has been developed at underwater manipulation technology lab in Huazhong University of Science and Technology （HUST） for a test bed of studying of deep ocean manipulation technologies. The manipulator features modular integration joints, and layered architecture control system. The oil-filled, pressure-compensated joint is compactly designed and integrated of a permanent magnet （PM） brushless motor, a drive circuit, a harmonic gear and an angular feedback potentiometer. The underwater control system is based on a network and consisted of three embedded PC/104 computers which are used for servo control, task plan and target sensor respectively. They communicate through User Datagram Protocol （UDP） multicast communication in Vxworks OS. A supervisor PC with a virtual 3D GUI is fiber linked to underwater control system. Furthermore, the manipulator is equipped with a sensor system including a unique ultra-sonic probe array and an underwater camera. Autonomous grasp strategy based multi-sensor is studied. The results of watertight test in 40 MPa, joint＇s efficiency test and autonomous grasp experiments in tank are also presented.