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The Structure Design of the Mini Underwater Robot

Article  in  Applied Mechanics and Materials · February 2013

DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.307.121

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Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 307 (2013) pp 121-125
Online available since 2013/Feb/13 at www.scientific.net
© (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.307.121

The structure design of the mini underwater robot

Yufeng Wei1,a, Fang Liu2,b, Fei Hu3,c, Fanrang Kong4,d

1,2,3,4
School of Engineering Science, University of Science and Technology of China,
Hefei Anhui 230027, China
a
wyf1541@mail.ustc.edu.cn, bliufang1@mail.ustc.edu.cn, cfeihu@mail.ustc.edu.cn,
d
kongfr@ustc.edu.cn

Keywords: Underwater robot; Structure design; Resistance calculation.

Abstract: A kind of mini underwater robot is introduced in this artical. Aim at the situation of
shallow water area(5m~30m)，we analyzed and designed the structure of the whole robot pertinently,
and calculated the underwater movement resistance, which thereby could give theoretical support on
the choice of thrusters. The robot detects the underwater situation effectively by high definition
camera that installed in the front of the robot, and achieves lifting and turning movement though 3
propellers. The manipulator installed in above of the robot could grab underwater objects effectively.

1 Introduction
Our country has a long coastline and many rivers and lakes, so the distribution of the shallow water
area is very extensive[1]. In recent years, along with the continuous attention and development on the
marine resources by the state, related waters aquaculture, hydrological detection, resource
exploration, underwater archaeology, safety monitoring activities and so on are very various, which
result in the increasing of labor cost of underwater operations, and the water risk events occur
frequently[2]. Therefore, research on mini underwater robot with low cost, small volume,
muti-function and used in the shallow water area has important realistic meaning and great useful
value for scientific and technological progress and economic development. First of all, we analyzed
the special situation of the shallow water, proposed three function-designing requirements, namely
underwater detection, photography, grab. Secondly, we calculated the underwater movement
resistance of the robot, which provides an instructional analysis of selecting appropriate power
thrusters, thereby further optimize the main structure of the robot.

2 The working principle and structure composition

2.1 The working principle of underwater robot
We use Hd camera which connected with the display in the mother boat to achieve real time
monitoring of the underwater situation. Forward, backward and turning movements of the robot are
controlled by two horizontal propellers. The robot could achieve forward and backward movements
when the two horizontal propellers turning in the same direction with the same speed, the robot could
achieve turning movement when the two horizontal propellers turning in the opposite direction. In
addition, a vertical direction propeller is needed to drive the robot up and down. Grab structure adopts
Four degree of freedom manipulator to seize the underwater objects effectively.

2.2 The structure composition of underwater robot

The mini underwater robot designed in this article has two parts: overwater part and underwater part.
It consists of the robot body device, power system, observation system, manipulator and
control-system. The 3-D assembly drawing of the underwater robot is shown in Fig. 1.

All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of TTP,
www.ttp.net. (ID: 218.22.21.3, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China-08/08/14,12:39:13)
122 Mechatronics and Computational Mechanics

3
5

1-Main cabin 2-Propeller 3-Head lamp 4-Hd-camera 5-manipulator 6-control box

Fig.1. 3-D assembly drawing of the underwater robot

Overwater part consists of control system and power supply. Control system is the brain of the
underwater robot, it should accept and deal with the real-time instructions, collect various image
information and status information from underwater at the same time, processing and sending them
back, whereby realize the remote control in real time. The control box which linked to the robot body
with a cable, controls the head lamp, Hd-camera, propellers and manipulator of the robot.
Underwater part consists of robot body, propulsion system, observation system and manipulator.
Considering the influence of the buoyancy, the robot body is designed into symmetry structure.
Propulsion system which powered by a mother boat though the cable consists of controllers and
sealing devices. It controls the forward, backward and turning movements of the underwater robot. A
throughout-structure in the middle of the main cabin has a same propeller inside and this propeller
drives the underwater robot up and down.
Observation system which seals in the main cabin consists of Hd-camera with wide angle and
head lamps. The design of lighting installation is because natural light cannot meet the requirement
due to light will attenuate in the water. Under the main cabin is supporting frame which used to
support the robot standing at the bottom of the ocean.
Four degree of freedom manipulator is controlled by four motors. Grab part which adopts
connecting rod structure, droved by a stepping motor. The stepping motor drives the screw rotating to
moves the screw nut ,whereby drives the connecting rod which hinge with the screw to grab the
objects that length of 10~100 millimeters effectively.

3 The structure design of the main cabin

3.1 Shape selection of the main cabin
The main cabin of the underwater robot has numerous forms, and the functions also have
different features. Nevertheless, the shape and material adopted depends on two main factors: the first
one is designed depth of the underwater robot, the other one is the payload of the underwater robot.
And these two factors are decided by the task and depth of the underwater robot[3]. Considering the
overall designing goal and the descending depth, payload, underwater environment and task, the
article analyzed and demonstrated the shape of the underwater robot.
The main cabin should not only have enough space to install the control circuit and monitoring
equipment, but also have enough intensity to resist the water pressure. so, we should choose the
suitable material to content the supporting intensity and reliable tightness. Meanwhile, the main cabin
is the main provider of buoyancy, so the displacement should as large as possible. But in order to
minimize the water resistance, the surface of main cabin should be as smooth and simple as possible.
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 307 123

We designed main cabin as a capsule, cylindrical shell in the middle and two half-ball shells on
the ends. Because cylindrical shell not only has enough intensity to resist water pressure, but also
could get a very small weight-displacement ratio[4]. Half-ball shell, with a monitoring camera and
electronic instruments installed in it, have strong resistance to pressure and lower water resistance.
3.2 Material selection of the main cabin
Because of the working environment of the underwater robot is complicated, so we should
consider the properties of the material, such as the corrosion resistance, specific strength, impact
toughness, manufacturing difficulty, welding difficulty, manufacturing cost and so on. Through
considering comprehensively, we selected 5454-aluminum alloy as the main material of the main
cabin, and PC (polycarbonate) engineering plastic as the material the half-ball shell.
3.3 Stress calculation of the main cabin
The robot will deform when squeezed by the seawater. Although when water pressure increased
to a certain value which still within the strength of material, the main cabin lost symmetry due to the
overlarge deformation. Therefore, the design of the main cabin should guarantee the intensity and
stability. In order to content the requirement of intensity and stability of the shell when working
underwater, we need to calculate the stress of the main cabin. We viewed the cylindrical shell as
thin-shell structure because the thickness of 5454 aluminum alloy is 2 mm, which is much smaller
compared with the radius of curvature (R=80 mm).
The maximum working depth of the underwater robot is 30 meters. During the stress calculation
of the main cabin, we should determine the calculated load first. In order to guarantee the main cabin
still working while exceeding the work depth in a short time, this article takes the limit depth (hw =40
m) as the calculation basis, which is deeper than the working depth. Limit load is static water pressure
relatively to the limit depth denoted by Pw.
Pw = hw =0.0098 hw =0.0098×40=0.392 Mpa
denotes unit weight of water. Because 40 meters under the sea belong to shallow water area,
the density of water has little change, so we take =9.8kN/m3.
Strength calculation should have appropriate intensity reservation, so calculation pressure:
Pc =k Pw =1.4×0.392=0.5488 MPa
k denotes security coefficient, usually in the range of 1.25 to 1.5, this article takes 1.4.
So the positive pressure that the main cabin could endure when the robot working 40 meters
underwater is 0.5488 Mpa.
The main cabin of cylindrical mini underwater robot generally divided into short type and long
type. Main dimensions of the main cabin designed in this article are:
L=200 mm, D=160 mm, t=2 mm, from the formula:
4.0D =4.0x160x =4047.72mm
we can get L< 4.0·D , thus this shell belongs to short type.

Then, judge the instability condition of the short cylindrical shell.

Considering the deformation is very complex when the shell lost balance, so we should take the
effect that boundary on the stability into account. When destroyed by instability, critical damage
strength will make shell deformed that similar to the sine function waveform along the circumference,
which will produce enormous bending stress to destroy the shell. Different intensity will produce a
different wave number. Therefore, we must guarantee the stability of the shell in the design. This
article adopts Ram formula which is frequently-used in engineering to calculate the stability of the
shell. Damaging pressure that causes the shell instability:

Pcr = = =1266.87MPa >> Pc =0.5488Mpa

124 Mechatronics and Computational Mechanics

The calculation result shows that the critical pressure the main cabin could endure is much larger
than the pressure when the robot dives to 40 meters underwater. Thus, instability phenomena of the
main cabin won’t appear when the underwater robot in the working depth.

4 The calculation of underwater kinetic resistance

4.1 Resistance of forward and backward movements
Total resistance of the underwater robot is resultant force along the movement direction that acting on
the robot body, could be expressed as[5]:
Rt = Ct·ρv2S = Rf +Rw +Re (1)

Ct —total resistance coefficient of the robot body, the value generally in the range of 3.5×10 3 to
4.9×103 ; ρ—mass density of the liquid; v , S —velocity and wet area of the robot.
The total resistance Rt is mainly related to the shape, surface roughness and appendage situation
of the robot body, and the resistance of the naked submerged body is the main part of the total
resistance of the underwater robot, which includes:
i. Frictional resistance Rf —usually based on tablet assumed to calculate it. For the frictional
resistance increased by surface roughness, we used coefficient of roughness subsidies(△Cf )
during the calculation. △Cf =（0.3~0.5）×10-3 , we take △Cf=0.0004 in this article.
Experimental experience has shown that frictional resistance is related to viscosity, linear amount
of object(L), velocity(v), fluid density(ρ) and fluid viscosity coefficient(μ), that is Rf
= , which can be written as the approximate formula:
Rf = ρv2S = (Rn) ρv2S = Cf ρv2S (2)
—kinematic viscosity of fluid; S —wet area of robot; Rn —Reynolds number; Cf =
(Rn)—total resistance coefficient of the robot body.
ii. Wave-making resistance Rw —actual wave situations affect the resistance directly. When the dive
depth is greater than one third of the length of the robot, the wave-making resistance can be
ignored. So the later calculation of this artical doesn’t consider it.
iii. Sticky pressure resistance Re —also known as form resistance or viscous pressure differential
resistance, usually uses the following approximate formula to calculate:
2
Re = Ce·ρv S (3)
Ce = e(Rn) —sticky pressure resistance coefficient.
To sum up:
2
Rt = Rf + Re =0.5ρv S·(Cf +Ce) (4)
Then calculate the resistance of underwater robot according to formula (1) to (4):
a) The maximum resistance of forward and backward movements
2
Rt =0.5Ct·ρv S = Rf +Rw +Re = Rf + Re
The wet area of the robot S =0.37 m2, velocity v=0.4m/s.
Rn= = =148110; L—linear amount of object.

To look up from the table: when the sea temperature is 15 °C, = 1.18831×10-6 m2/s, and
density of sea water ρ= 1.026×103 kg/m3, so:
Cf =1.328Rn-0.5=1.328 x148110-0.5=0.0035, Rf = Cf ρv2 ·S , Re = Ce ρv2 ·S
Ce =0.8 that obtained through experience value, thus we can get the total resistance:
2
Rt = 0.5(Cf +△Cf +Ce) ρv S = 0.5× (0.0035+0.0004+0.8) ×1.026×103×0.42×0.37=24.41N
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 307 125

Considering the additional resistance produced by cable of the robot, we take 20% as the
additional coefficient. Therefore, the total resistance is:
R *t =24.41× (1+20%) =29.29 N
So the minimum power (P) of the underwater robot when the velocity is 0.4 m/s is:
P =29.29×0.4=11.72 (w)
The power of the propeller we selected is 50 w, considering the energy loss in the transfer
process; we take 70% as the transfer-efficiency. So:
50×70% =35(w) >11.5(w)
Thus the propeller we selected is able to meet the requirement.
b) Because the robot we designed is working in shallow water area, and the required velosity of
lifting movement is lower, so we selected the same propeller with the horizontal movement.

5 Conclusions
We designed the structure of the mini underwater robot body and a manipulator that aiming at the
shallow water area (5 m ~30 m) operating features and calculated the resistance of underwater
movement in this article. Three propellers could achieve forward, backward, and turning movements
of the underwater robot. The four-freedom degree manipulator could achieve grabbing underwater
objects effectively. This mini underwater robot could be applied on environment monitoring and
sampling in shallow water or lakes with significant market potential and practical meanings.

References
[1] L. L. Whitcomb and D. R. Yoerger, "A new distributed real-time control system for the jason
underwater robot," 1993, pp. 368-374 vol. 1.
[2] R. L. Marks, H. H. Wang, M. J. Lee, and S. M. Rock, "Automatic visual station keeping of an
underwater robot," 1994, pp. II/137-II/142 vol. 2.
[3] L. Ye, L. Jian-Cheng, and S. Ming-Xue, "Dynamics model of underwater robot motion control
in 6 degrees of freedom," Journal of Harbin Institute of Technology, vol. 12, 2005.
[4] K. Hirata, T. Takimoto, and K. Tamura, "Study on turning performance of a fish robot," 2000,
pp. 287-292.
[5] M. Carreras, P. Ridao, R. Garcia, and T. Nicosevici, "Vision-based localization of an
underwater robot in a structured environment," 2003, pp. 971-976 vol. 1.
 Mechatronics and Computational Mechanics
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The Structure Design of the Mini Underwater Robot

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