Underwater Robot Design Proposed Method Based on CAD and CFD

Abstract

Over the past decades, marine exploration has evolved rapidly due to the emergence of unmanned underwater vehicles, also known as underwater robots. These technologies need to be adapted to new applications, allowing for a constant evolution of the technology as problems evolve along with the solutions developed. Computer assisted design and computer fluid dynamics make it possible to have a design that can be studied and modified while been highly cost efficient. It was possible to design the mechanical part of a submersible ROV whose structure consists of a hermetic spherical acrylic box to protect the electronic components, a Styrofoam buoyancy element to obtain a buoyancy in equilibrium state, six thrusters of which four are horizontal vectored at 45 degrees and two are vertical which gives it 5-DOF, and a support structure of fiberglass reinforced plastic was designed. The designed ROV has a mass of 9.17 kg and can withstand operating at maximum depths of up to 50 m and pressure of 5 atm. The NED-frame and Bframe were established on the designed ROV and the dynamic model matrices were calculated. Because the designed ROV has six thrusters, the thruster configuration matrix is six rows and six columns.