Trajectory Following of a Tethered Underwater Robot With Multiple Control Techniques

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaming Wu ◽  
Dongjun Chen

A three-dimensional hydrodynamics and control model to simulate a tethered underwater robot system is proposed. The fluid motion around the robot main body with control ducted propellers is governed by the Navier–Stokes equations, and multiple sliding mesh technique is applied for the numerical solution of the equations. The governing equation of umbilical cable is based on the Ablow and Schechter method. The six degrees-of-freedom equations of motion for underwater vehicle simulations are adopted to estimate the hydrodynamic performance of the underwater robot. In the model, a hybrid feed-forward and feedback control technique is applied to adjust the length of the umbilical cable, and the incremental proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control algorithm is adopted to regulate the rotating speeds of the ducted propellers. The numerical results indicate that the multiple control techniques applied in this paper are feasible and effective, and adjusting the length of the umbilical cable is largely responsible for the vertical trajectory control to the robot, while regulating the rotating speeds of the propellers plays a leading role in the horizontal trajectory manipulation, the deviation between the designated trajectory and the controlled one is acceptable.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 940
Author(s):  
Jiaming Wu ◽  
Yizhe Dou ◽  
Haiyan Lv ◽  
Chenghua Ma ◽  
Le Zhong ◽  
...  

A numerical technique to simulate the hydrodynamic behavior of ducted propellers attached to an underwater vehicle traveling under the mutually interacting flow fields of the vehicle and the propellers is proposed; the hydrodynamic performance of the propellers and the hydrodynamic loading on the main body of the vehicle when it is in different kinds of motion is investigated numerically. In the research, 3D geometric models of the duct, propeller, and main body of the vehicle are first constructed according to their geometrical features. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique based on the hybrid algorithm of dynamic mesh-nested sliding mesh is applied to solve the Navier–Stokes equations that govern the fluid motion around the duct, propeller, and main body of the vehicle when it is in motion. These equations are solved numerically with the CFD code Fluent. With the proposed numerical simulation technique, the hydrodynamic characteristics of the thrusts generated by the ducted propellers and the loading on the main body in the vehicle system under the mutually interacting flow fields are observed. The results of our numerical simulation indicate that the hybrid algorithm of dynamic mesh-nested sliding mesh can simulate multiple degrees of freedom of motion in underwater vehicle systems. In different motion states, the main body exerts a significant influence on the investigated flow fields; during the vehicle motions, negative wakes are formed on both sides of the main body, which lead to a decrease in the thrusts generated by the propellers on both sides. The thrust of the middle propeller is greater than that of the normal single one because of the obstructing effect in the tunnel caused by the main body.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 561
Author(s):  
Jiaming Wu ◽  
Shunyuan Xu ◽  
Hua Liao ◽  
Chenghua Ma ◽  
Xianyuan Yang ◽  
...  

The maneuverability and hydrodynamic performance of the tethered underwater robot in a uniform flow field is investigated. In this research, a tethered underwater robot symmetrically installed with NACA66 hydrofoils and Ka 4-70/19A ducted propellers around its main body is first constructed. The method of overlapping grid combined with sliding mesh is applied in the numerical simulations, and the principle of relative motion is adopted to describe the hydrodynamic responses of the tethered underwater robot during the robot manipulation. The reliability of the CFD methods applied in this research is verified by experimental results, and the comparison between numerical and experimental ones shows that there is very little difference being found. The numerical results indicate that computational cost due to the research’s large-scale domain can be effectively reduced by the adopted numerical methods, hydrofoils’ control effect is greatly influenced by the towing speeds, and thrusts issued from the ducted propellers are related to the tethered underwater robot’s position and towing speed.


Author(s):  
Jiaming Wu ◽  
Xuefeng Jin

A new concept of control technique to perform operation of trajectory maneuvering to a controllable underwater towed vehicle moving in a designated path with a required attitude is presented. A trajectory and attitude control technique for the towed vehicle is proposed in order to accomplish the vehicle’s trajectory and attitude manipulations. This technique is based on a fuzzy algorithm. The towed vehicle in the research consists of a cylindrical main body equipped with several active horizontal and vertical control surfaces. Numerical simulation on the hydrodynamic and control behavior of the towed vehicle under this control manipulation is conducted based on a fully 3-D hydrodynamic model of an underwater towed vehicle. In the model the governing equation of the towed cable is based on the Ablow and Schechter method. The six-degrees-of-freedom equations of motion for an underwater vehicle simulation proposed by Gertler and Hagen are adopted to estimate the hydrodynamic performance of the towed vehicle. In numerical simulation the deflections of vehicle’s control surfaces are governed by the proposed fuzzy controller to manipulate the vehicle traveling along a 3-D stipulated trajectory configuration and required attitude. The values of the deflections are taken as input parameters for the hydrodynamic model at every time step. The performance of the towed vehicle under different designated trajectory and attitude control manipulations can then be investigated with the hydrodynamic model.


Author(s):  
Jiaming Wu ◽  
Dongjun Chen ◽  
Jinhua Lin ◽  
Yan Chen ◽  
Yizhe Dou

Abstract The trajectory of tethered underwater robot is usually controlled by actuating the rotating speeds of control propellers attached to the robot and/or adjusting the length of umbilical cable. When the trajectory control problem of a tethered underwater robot is studied, it is necessary to couple the main body of underwater robot, umbilical cable and control propellers together forming an integrated hydrodynamic model so that the robot is in a comprehensive dynamic equilibrium condition, suitable control algorithms are then jointed into the hydrodynamic model constructing a hydrodynamic and control model for the tethered underwater robot system. Only in this way the hydrodynamic and control nature of a tethered underwater robot during different kinds of control manipulations can be numerically revealed objectively. In this paper, a hydrodynamic and control model to simulate the trajectory following control of a tethered underwater robot system is proposed, and the hydrodynamic performances of the robot and the umbilical cable are observed. To achieve this goal, three-dimensional hydrodynamic model of tethered underwater robot system is first introduced, feed-forward control technique for adjusting the length of umbilical cable and incremental PID algorithm for regulating the rotating speeds of propellers are then incorporated into the hydrodynamic model forming the hydrodynamic and control model. Based on the established hydrodynamic and control mode, relationships between the thrusts from the propellers and the rotating speeds of the propellers, and those among the trajectory following of the underwater robot and the control actions of adjusting the length of umbilical cable and governing the rotating speeds of the propellers are analyzed, and also the hydrodynamic performances of the tethered underwater robot system under the control manipulation are observed. In the research, the amplitude limit filtering method is applied in solving the governing equations of the umbilical cable, this technique is applied to avoid the chattering effect in the cable tension computation, so that a successive and stable computation process is maintained. The main factors affecting the singular nature of coefficient matrices during the numerical solutions of the proposed model are also investigated in the paper.


Author(s):  
Jiaming Wu ◽  
Chengwei Zhang ◽  
Zhijian Ye ◽  
Ying Xu ◽  
Weiwen Feng ◽  
...  

A practical approach to simulate hydrodynamic performance of ducted propellers attached in an underwater vehicle under the influence of flow field of the vehicle is proposed, hydrodynamic characteristics of the propeller when the vehicle in a dynamic yawing motion is studied numerically. In the research, 3D geometric models of the duct, propeller and underwater vehicle are first constructed according to their geometrical features. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique based on the finite volume method and multi-sliding mesh technique are applied to solve the Navier-Stokes equations which govern the fluid motions around the duct, propeller and underwater vehicle when the vehicle are in a yawing motion. These equations are solved numerically with the CFD code FLUENT. With the proposed numerical simulation approaches, the hydrodynamic phenomenon of thrusts generated from the ducted propellers in the vehicle system under the flow field influence of the vehicle’s yawing motion are analyzed. Results of our numerical simulation indicate that the influence of flow field caused by the underwater vehicle on the thrusts of the ducted propellers is not negligible; when studying the thrust characteristics of a ducted propeller in an underwater vehicle system, the thrust nature of the propeller can only be evaluated objectively on the condition that the vehicle and the ducted propeller are combined together into an integrated system, and the numerical simulation are conducted in such an integrated system.


1985 ◽  
Vol 40 (8) ◽  
pp. 789-799 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. F. Borghesani

The Navier-Stokes equations for the fluid motion induced by a disk rotating inside a cylindrical cavity have been integrated for several values of the boundary layer thickness d. The equivalence of such a device to a rotating disk immersed in an infinite medium has been shown in the limit as d → 0. From that solution and taking into account edge effect corrections an equation for the viscous torque acting on the disk has been derived, which depends only on d. Moreover, these results justify the use of a rotating disk to perform accurate viscosity measurements.


2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wander Gustavo Rocha Vieira ◽  
Fred Nitzsche ◽  
Carlos De Marqui

In recent decades, semi-active control strategies have been investigated for vibration reduction. In general, these techniques provide enhanced control performance when compared to traditional passive techniques and lower energy consumption if compared to active control techniques. In semi-active concepts, vibration attenuation is achieved by modulating inertial, stiffness, or damping properties of a dynamic system. The smart spring is a mechanical device originally employed for the effective modulation of its stiffness through the use of semi-active control strategies. This device has been successfully tested to damp aeroelastic oscillations of fixed and rotary wings. In this paper, the modeling of the smart spring mechanism is presented and two semi-active control algorithms are employed to promote vibration reduction through enhanced damping effects. The first control technique is the smart-spring resetting (SSR), which resembles resetting control techniques developed for vibration reduction of civil structures as well as the piezoelectric synchronized switch damping on short (SSDS) technique. The second control algorithm is referred to as the smart-spring inversion (SSI), which presents some similarities with the synchronized switch damping (SSD) on inductor technique previously presented in the literature of electromechanically coupled systems. The effects of the SSR and SSI control algorithms on the free and forced responses of the smart-spring are investigated in time and frequency domains. An energy flow analysis is also presented in order to explain the enhanced damping behavior when the SSI control algorithm is employed.


Author(s):  
Wei Yao ◽  
Zhaoming Qian

In this paper, an improved load sharing control scheme is presented, which is able to improve the transient response and power sharing accuracy of parallel-connected inverters used in microgrid. It also shows how the improved droop method can be easily adapted to account for the operation of parallel-connected inverters, providing good performance under the variation and disturbance of loads, as well as achieving good steady-state objectives and transient performance. Two DSP-based single-phase Microgrid inverters are designed and implemented. Simulation and experimental results are all reported, confirming the validity of the proposed control technique.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianying Wang ◽  
Yanjun Zhou ◽  
Honglin Tang ◽  
Shihua Zhang ◽  
Haiqing Tian

Abstract The JCSM concept (short for Jackup Combined Semisubmersible Multifunction Platform) is a new type of semisubmersible platform presented by the first author, which overcomes the shortcomings of the available semisubmersible platforms, and combines the advantages of the traditional semisubmersible platform, the Jackup platform and the new FPSO concept - IQFP. Due to the complicated interaction between stability and hydrodynamic performance, it is necessary to explore the effect of geometrical parameters of the main body on the stability and hydrodynamic performance in order to obtain the optimal design plan of a JCSM platform. Firstly, the structure components and innovations of the JCSM were briefly reviewed in order to facilitate readers to understand its full picture. Then, six independent geometric parameters were selected by carefully studying the shape characteristics of the initial design plan of a JCSM study case. Furthermore, the stability heights and motion responses of various floating bodies of the JCSM case with different geometric parameters in wave were calculated using boundary element method based on potential flow theory. Lastly, effect of the shape parameters on stability and hydrodynamic performance of the JCSM was qualitatively evaluated. The research would shed lights on the shape design of the JCSM main body.


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