Underwater robot, also called underwater drone, is an important branch of water-land-air unmanned platform. It can carry cameras, operational tools, and sensors to dive underwater, and complete underwater observation, sampling, and even more complex underwater tasks through remote control or autonomous control. It adopts the same control system and architecture as the airborne UAV, and is compatible with the MAVLINK communication protocol.
Compared with the traditional underwater robots, submarines, it has the advantages of lightweight and portable, low cost, high reliability, easy to operate, etc., is widely used in salvage and rescue, underwater infrastructure inspection, underwater pipelines and cables inspection, marine fisheries and other fields, and even in the military and national defense, marine wind power, marine oil and gas, marine scientific research, and other high-end industries have also begun to replace the traditional heavy-duty operating equipment with underwater robots.
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, image recognition technology, target tracking, trajectory planning, trajectory optimization, drone formation, data mining and other technologies are becoming more and more mature, and the water-land-air robots are working together and inseparable. The upgrading of intelligent equipment will redefine the way of work in defense, emergency response, mapping, and urban management. Due to the demand for personalized settings of UAV control systems, UAVs will become a necessary support tool for every professional’s work.
Underwater robots are typically composed of a shore-based console, an underwater body, a communication and power system, auxiliary tools, sensors, and user modules.
I. Shore-based consoles
Used for robot communication, video display, and data saving. Essentially a computer with robot control software installed. For general operators, the main role of the shore-based console is to manipulate the robot; for advanced developers, the shore-based console can be turned into and secondary development of the robot.
II. Underwater bodies
This part consists of propellers, electronic compartments (with head camera), underwater lights, battery compartments, buoyant materials (yellow parts) and main frame. The body part can be customized or upgraded according to the demand. Usually it is enough to choose the standard configuration. For large variable loads, it is necessary to upgrade the propellers with more thrust, and for cases with high endurance requirements, it is necessary to upgrade the battery capacity, or carry auxiliary cameras.
III. Communication and power supply systems
For battery-powered robots, zero-buoyancy umbilical cables provide the communication medium for the underwater body. Typically 100m/200m/300m umbilical cables are recommended. For longer communication distances, the communication system needs to be customized for different communication distances.
For surface-powered robots, a zero-buoyancy umbilical cable provides a communication medium for the underwater body and at the same time provides power. Surface power supply in principle allows for long hours of continuous operation, but depending on the increase in power of the underwater equipment, the umbilical cable diameter becomes thicker and the spools larger, so the most suitable robot has to be customized according to the actual needs.
IV. Auxiliary tools, sensors
Robots, samplers, brushes, sonobuoys, water quality sensors, etc. Chapai offers a wide range of supporting tools and sensors to make the robot more powerful.
V. User modules
It can also be equipped with customer-specified modules to provide customized mechanical interfaces, communication interfaces and power supply to realize more possibilities underwater.
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