Development of an Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) for Surveillance and Inspection of Port Facilities

Author(s):  
Luis B. Gutierrez ◽  
Carlos A. Zuluaga ◽  
Juan A. Ramirez ◽  
Rafael E. Vasquez ◽  
Diego A. Florez ◽  
...  

This work addresses the development of an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV), required to obtain reliable visual information, used for surveillance and maintenance of ship shells and underwater structures of Colombian port facilities and oceanographic research. The most relevant design constraints were evaluated considering environmental conditions, dimensional restrictions, hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, degrees of freedom and the availability of instrumentation and control hardware. The mechanical/naval design was performed through an iterative process by using computational tools CAD/CAE/CFD. The hardware architecture was divided in three layers: instrumentation, communications and control. The software was developed using ANSI C with Embedded Linux operating system. The guidance and navigation system used the Kalman filter to estimate the state of the vehicle. The vehicle can operate in manual and semi-automatic modes. In the semi-automatic, the position of a joystick is converted into the velocity set-points that are integrated to get the yaw and depth commands for the PID controllers. The rigorous design and a consistent construction processes allowed the development of a robust and reliable robotic system that constitutes an innovative product in Colombia.

Author(s):  
Juan A. Rami´rez ◽  
Rafael E. Va´squez ◽  
Luis B. Gutie´rrez ◽  
Diego A. Flo´rez

This paper presents the mechanical/naval design process of an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV), required to obtain reliable visual information, used for surveillance and maintenance of ship shells and underwater structures of Colombian port facilities. The design was divided into four main subsystems: mechanical/naval, hardware, software and guidance, navigation and control. The most relevant design constraints were evaluated considering environmental conditions, dimensional restrictions, hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, degrees of freedom and the availability of instrumentation and control hardware. The mechanical/naval design was performed through an iterative process by using computational tools, including Computer Aided Design CAD, Computer Aided Engineering CAE, Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD and a high level programming environment. The obtained design ensures that the reliable operation of the robot will be achieved by using a consistent construction process. The new ROV constitutes an innovative product in Colombia, and it will be used for surveillance and oceanographic research tasks.


Author(s):  
Rau´l A. Valencia ◽  
Juan A. Rami´rez ◽  
Luis B. Gutie´rrez ◽  
Manuel J. Garci´a

This article presents theoretical and computational studies with Computational Fluids Dynamics (CFD) tools of an Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), required to obtain reliable visual information, used for surveillance and maintenance of ship shells and underwater structures of Colombian port facilities. The thrust force is analyzed at the operational conditions by using CFD tools (FLUENT™, CFX™, COSMOSFLOW™) and the information about forces, torques and power of the vehicle’s thrusters is obtained. The commercial propellers were modeled by using a reverse engineering process with a 3D scanner and Computer Aided Design (CAD) software (RAPIDFORM™). The results obtained with the CFD package allowed to evaluate several operating scenarios of the vehicle that are used for feedback purposes in the design process of the ROV before it be manufactured.


Author(s):  
Alireza Marzbanrad ◽  
Jalil Sharafi ◽  
Mohammad Eghtesad ◽  
Reza Kamali

This is report of design, construction and control of “Ariana-I”, an Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), built in Shiraz University Robotic Lab. This ROV is equipped with roll, pitch, heading, and depth sensors which provide sufficient feedback signals to give the system six degrees-of-freedom actuation. Although its center of gravity and center of buoyancy are positioned in such a way that Ariana-I ROV is self-stabilized, but the combinations of sensors and speed controlled drivers provide more stability of the system without the operator involvement. Video vision is provided for the system with Ethernet link to the operation unit. Control commands and sensor feedbacks are transferred on RS485 bus; video signal, water leakage alarm, and battery charging wires are provided on the same multi-core cable. While simple PI controllers would improve the pitch and roll stability of the system, various control schemes can be applied for heading to track different paths. The net weight of ROV out of water is about 130kg with frame dimensions of 130×100×65cm. Ariana-I ROV is designed such that it is possible to be equipped with different tools such as mechanical arms, thanks to microprocessor based control system provided with two directional high speed communication cables for on line vision and operation unit.


Author(s):  
F. Menna ◽  
A. Torresani ◽  
E. Nocerino ◽  
M. M. Nawaf ◽  
J. Seinturier ◽  
...  

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Metrology is fundamental in all the applications that require to qualify, verify and validate measured data according to standards or, in other words, to assess their compliance with predefined tolerances. At sea, metrology is commonly associated with the process of measuring underwater structures, mainly pipeline elements widely used in offshore industry. Subsea operations are very expensive; optimizing time and money resources are the core factors driving innovation in the subsea metrology industry. In this study, the authors investigate the use of state-of-art vision-based algorithms, i.e. ORB-SLAM2 and Visual Odometry, as a navigation tool to assist and control a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) while performing subsea metrology operations. In particular, the manuscript will focus on methods for assessing the accuracy of both trajectory and tie points provided by the tested approaches and evaluating whether the preliminary real time reconstruction meets the tolerances defined in typical subsea metrology scenarios.</p>


Author(s):  
Tran Ngoc Huy ◽  
Huynh Tan Dat

Shallow water zones, including lakes, ponds, creeks, and rivers, play a prominent role in the spiritual culture and economy of Vietnamese people throughout history. Therefore, numerous researches have been conducted in regard to this topic for many purposes, most of which focus on elevating the quality of life and safety. With the aid of new technology, modern platforms gradually replace conventional methods and reach a higher level of efficiency and convenience. This paper presents the research on design and control of Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) belonging to National key Laboratory of Digital Control and System Engineering. Basically, it is controlled by human pilots to move underwater and perform specifically pre-assigned tasks. The power supply and communication channel for the vehicle are connected from an onshore station via cable systems. There are several stages of the pipeline in implementing a full-scale ROV platform that must be studied carefully. Prior to the experiments in practical conditions, the proposed 3D model designed by SOLIDWORKS® and MATLAB Simulink® mathematical model analysis firstly provide a nonlinear plant in order to apply classical PID controllers and evaluate their feasibility through simulation process. The outer frame protects other components from being damaged or unattached, while the thruster allocation strategy from the simulated model enables flexibility in motion. A system of sensors and cameras collects data from an underwater environment for on-the-spot monitoring, or they can be captured for further post-analysis processes. After assembling all parts into a whole model, we launched the vehicle at the maximum depth of a pool as the condition of a shallow water survey. Optimistic experimental results have proved the ability of controllers even in case of the presence of external disturbances.


2020 ◽  
Vol 902 ◽  
pp. 13-22
Author(s):  
Ngoc Huy Tran ◽  
Thanh Nam Nguyen

This paper presents the research of model-base design and control of Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) built in VietNam Automation & Mechatronics Laboratory (VIAMLAB). This is one of the most important types of underwater robots used in water environments for many purposes, especially for navy and marine industries. The design keeps our tethered ROV self-stabilized in the horizontal plane. It is also equipped with thrusters and sensor feedbacks, allowing 6 degrees-of-freedom motion. Moreover, cameras and grabber integrated into ROV support underwater survey tasks. In addition, the paper also simulates controllers with the main task of keeping depth for ROV. The controllers designed and surveyed here include: PID, optimal control (LQR), standard model control (MRAC) and combination controller between LQR and MRAC. The performance of the algorithm will be evaluated through simulation results using Matlab / Simulink.


TAPPI Journal ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-11
Author(s):  
MOHAMED CHBEL ◽  
LUC LAPERRIÈRE

Pulp and paper processes frequently present nonlinear behavior, which means that process dynam-ics change with the operating points. These nonlinearities can challenge process control. PID controllers are the most popular controllers because they are simple and robust. However, a fixed set of PID tuning parameters is gen-erally not sufficient to optimize control of the process. Problems related to nonlinearities such as sluggish or oscilla-tory response can arise in different operating regions. Gain scheduling is a potential solution. In processes with mul-tiple control objectives, the control strategy must further evaluate loop interactions to decide on the pairing of manipulated and controlled variables that minimize the effect of such interactions and hence, optimize controller’s performance and stability. Using the CADSIM Plus™ commercial simulation software, we developed a Jacobian sim-ulation module that enables automatic bumps on the manipulated variables to calculate process gains at different operating points. These gains can be used in controller tuning. The module also enables the control system designer to evaluate loop interactions in a multivariable control system by calculating the Relative Gain Array (RGA) matrix, of which the Jacobian is an essential part.


2020 ◽  
pp. 67-73
Author(s):  
N.D. YUsubov ◽  
G.M. Abbasova

The accuracy of two-tool machining on automatic lathes is analyzed. Full-factor models of distortions and scattering fields of the performed dimensions, taking into account the flexibility of the technological system on six degrees of freedom, i. e. angular displacements in the technological system, were used in the research. Possibilities of design and control of two-tool adjustment are considered. Keywords turning processing, cutting mode, two-tool setup, full-factor model, accuracy, angular displacement, control, calculation [email protected]


Author(s):  
Lee-Huang Chen ◽  
Kyunam Kim ◽  
Ellande Tang ◽  
Kevin Li ◽  
Richard House ◽  
...  

This paper presents the design, analysis and testing of a fully actuated modular spherical tensegrity robot for co-robotic and space exploration applications. Robots built from tensegrity structures (composed of pure tensile and compression elements) have many potential benefits including high robustness through redundancy, many degrees of freedom in movement and flexible design. However to fully take advantage of these properties a significant fraction of the tensile elements should be active, leading to a potential increase in complexity, messy cable and power routing systems and increased design difficulty. Here we describe an elegant solution to a fully actuated tensegrity robot: The TT-3 (version 3) tensegrity robot, developed at UC Berkeley, in collaboration with NASA Ames, is a lightweight, low cost, modular, and rapidly prototyped spherical tensegrity robot. This robot is based on a ball-shaped six-bar tensegrity structure and features a unique modular rod-centered distributed actuation and control architecture. This paper presents the novel mechanism design, architecture and simulations of TT-3, the first untethered, fully actuated cable-driven six-bar tensegrity spherical robot ever built and tested for mobility. Furthermore, this paper discusses the controls and preliminary testing performed to observe the system’s behavior and performance.


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