A new concept spherical underwater robot with high mobility

Abstract

In this paper, a new concept spherical underwater robot with the ability of moving both on the ground and underwater is designed. The robot has a spherical hull, with the differential driving mechanism inside the hull, and two propellers at each side of the sphere outside the hull. The Omni-directional rolling of the robot on the ground is realized by the inside differential mechanism. The propeller outside the spherical hull provides the thrust needed to swim underwater. The robot can pitch and yaw just by the inside differential mechanism without the need of control surfaces. This design makes it highly maneuverable even with zero forward speed. The mechanical and structural design of the robot is described, with the mechanism of the motion both on ground and underwater is discussed. At the end of the paper, the potential usage and the future improvement is given.