An improved 3D modeling of water-jet propellers for a spherical underwater robot

Abstract

This paper presents a newly improved 3D modeling of multiple water-jet propellers which is used inside a spherical underwater robot. For a start, the whole structure of the robot is illustrated briefly. To overcome undesirable properties of the 2D modeling, a more accurate modeling is designed instead of the previous one, which adopts one 6-axis load cell sensor to detect propulsive forces in the x, y, z-axis directions and torques simultaneously. Afterwards, a series of underwater experiments are carried out to figure out the closed relations between the regulating angles in horizontal plane and vertical plane and the forces and moments generated by single propeller in the robot. These experimental results showed that the advanced propulsion system is much more appropriate for studying on underwater robots.