CN111268071A - Split towing cable type water surface-underwater unmanned aircraft - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a split streamer type surface-underwater unmanned vehicle, comprising: an unmanned mother ship, which at least includes a hull and a propeller as a power source for the hull; an unmanned underwater vehicle, which at least includes A sealed cabin and multiple underwater propellers; information exchange between the unmanned mother ship and the unmanned underwater vehicle through cables; a remote wireless control terminal, which is used for wireless communication with the unmanned underwater vehicle The mother ship performs information exchange; the invention organically combines the towline-type unmanned vehicle with the small unmanned ship to realize a cooperative surface-underwater unmanned vehicle that only needs to provide remote operation instructions, thereby greatly improving the ordinary ROV. working radius and application range.

Description

Split streamer type surface-underwater unmanned vehicle

technical field

The invention relates to the field of underwater vehicles, in particular to a remote control and split streamer type unmanned vehicle combining an unmanned ship and an underwater robot.

Background technique

There are two main types of existing underwater vehicles - autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and remotely controlled unmanned vehicle (ROV). The former uses wireless communication and control, while the latter uses cables for wired communication and control. AUV mostly adopts underwater acoustic method for underwater communication, which is difficult and inefficient, while surface communication will be greatly reduced in terms of efficiency and concealment; the cables used in the latter greatly limit the maximum working radius and application of the aircraft. surroundings. Even so, both AUV and ROV are the current research hotspots in the ocean and inland rivers and lakes.

Compared with the wireless communication development of AUV, the difficulty and investment of wired control of ROV is relatively small. The success of Jiaolong provides a case proof for the large-scale operation of the towed vehicle. However, the technical and capital investment required for large-scale operations is still huge, and the operating radius of ROVs is limited by the length of cables and the operating area of the mother ship. ROV uses cable communication, the control signal is stable and less affected by the environment, but in order to obtain a wider working range, the length of the cable will continue to increase, and the cable will be affected by the flow of water and the possibility of entanglement will also increase. It will have an extremely adverse impact on the motion control of the ROV, resulting in a small working radius of the ordinary ROV. The mother ship is the origin of the ROV workspace, and its range of activities directly affects the ROV's operating radius. However, the operation of the manned mother ship needs to provide additional manpower, and the hull has a large displacement and does not use ordinary civilian use.

For popular inland and coastal water applications, if a low-cost, large-scale, high-reliability, and unmanned underwater vehicle application technology can be provided, it will be able to effectively promote the exploration and utilization of my country's underwater resources. The existing wireless communication technology for robots is becoming more and more mature, and its direct communication distance can even reach more than 5km, and satellite communication can even realize global real-time wireless communication and control. If the ROV, unmanned ship and long-distance communication are combined to develop a low-cost split streamer-type surface-underwater unmanned vehicle, the operating radius and application range of ordinary ROVs will be greatly improved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of this, the present invention organically combines a streamer-type unmanned vehicle (ROV) with a small unmanned vessel (USV) to realize a cooperative surface-underwater unmanned vehicle that only needs to provide remote operation instructions. The USV is used to build a communication bridge between the ROV and the operators on the shore. At the same time, the USV undertakes the long-distance transportation, release and recovery of the ROV; the ROV is the main body of the underwater operation, which is used for underwater video collection and real-time shooting. Under the circumstances, operations such as sample collection, resource salvage and product picking can be carried out.

A split streamer type surface-underwater unmanned vehicle, comprising:

An unmanned mother ship, which at least includes a hull and a propeller as a power source for the hull;

An unmanned underwater vehicle, which at least includes a sealed cabin and a plurality of underwater propellers; information is exchanged between the unmanned mother ship and the unmanned underwater vehicle through cables;

A remote wireless control terminal, which is used for information interaction with the unmanned mother ship by means of wireless communication.

Further, the hull includes two identical sub-hulls and a connecting plate fixedly connected between the two sub-hulls; the connecting plate is provided with a spool for winding the cable for driving the A receiving and discharging motor for the forward or reverse rotation of the bobbin and a conductive slip ring for realizing the connection of electric energy and signal between the cable and the unmanned mother ship;

Further, the unmanned mother ship is symmetrically provided with two clamping devices for fixing the unmanned underwater vehicle in a retracted state; the clamping devices include a clamping drive motor, which is fixed to the clamping drive. A crank on the motor output shaft, a hook hinged on the connecting plate and a connecting rod hinged between the crank and the hook; the crank, connecting rod, hook and connecting plate together form a crank-rocker mechanism.

Further, both the unmanned mother ship and the unmanned underwater vehicle are equipped with an attitude and position self-stabilizing PID controller, and the PID controller simultaneously accepts autonomous and manual pose motion control commands from the remote wireless control terminal.

Further, the number of the propeller thrusters is two symmetrically arranged at the stern of the hull of the unmanned mother ship; the number of the underwater thrusters is four, which are symmetrically distributed on both sides of the sealed cabin through the connecting frame.

Further, the unmanned mother ship carries a battery for powering the hull and the unmanned underwater vehicle; the unmanned mother ship may also carry a generator.

Further, both the unmanned mother ship and the unmanned underwater vehicle can be provided with attitude sensors, encoders, locators, video collectors and/or power monitors.

Beneficial effects of the present invention:

(1) A wide range of operations

In the present invention, since the movable range of the unmanned mother ship is only constrained by the water area and the wireless communication range, the relative operating radius of the unmanned underwater vehicle is only constrained by the cable length. Therefore, the operating range of the entire system can theoretically reach all connected waters in the network coverage area, which greatly expands the operating range of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

(2) Long battery life

The main energy-consuming components during the operation of the system of the present invention are the propeller thruster of the unmanned mother ship, the underwater thruster of the underwater unmanned vehicle, the retractor motor, the clamping drive motor, the sensing and communication equipment, the controller, etc. , The unmanned mother ship adopts the catamaran design to provide a large load capacity, so that the mother ship can carry a large capacity lithium power supply and even a generator, which greatly prolongs the battery life.

(3) The system is small in size and low in cost

Since both surface and underwater operation systems are unmanned, there is no need to provide space for operators to move, and no additional investment for personnel safety. The system volume can be effectively reduced, which is convenient for transportation, storage and large-scale use.

(4) High system stability

The unmanned mother ship in the present invention adopts a double-body structure, thereby increasing the restoring moment when the hull is inclined, so that the mother ship is not easy to overturn and has higher stability; the underwater unmanned vehicle adopts four pairs of underwater propellers, and adopts parallel The unique power arrangement method can realize rapid adjustment of position and attitude through differential mode, and the strong power can effectively resist the influence of underwater turbulence.

(5) Large expansion space

The underwater unmanned vehicle of the present invention adopts the drive mode of cable power supply and parallel installation of four underwater propellers, can provide large underwater posture adjustment force and moment, has a strong load capacity, and is suitable for carrying various operation function modules. It can adapt to difficult tasks such as underwater salvage, mining, and maintenance.

(6) Low operational risk and flexible control

Both the mother ship and the underwater vehicle of the present invention are unmanned equipment, and the operator can remotely control it on the shore, thereby effectively reducing the threat of water to the operator; the operator can move in a wide range and has high flexibility.

Description of drawings

Below in conjunction with accompanying drawing and embodiment, the present invention is further described:

Figure 1 is an axonometric view of the overall structure of the system;

Fig. 2 is the front view of the overall structure of the system;

Figure 3 is a rear view of the overall structure of the system;

Fig. 4 is the top view of the overall structure of the system;

Figure 5 is a front view of an unmanned mother ship;

Figure 6 is a front view of an underwater unmanned vehicle;

Figure 7 is a top view of an underwater unmanned vehicle;

8 is a schematic diagram of an underwater unmanned vehicle in a recovery state;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of an underwater unmanned vehicle in an operating state.

Detailed ways

This embodiment discloses a split streamer type surface-underwater unmanned vehicle, comprising:

The unmanned mother ship 6 includes at least a hull and a propeller 3 as a power source for the hull; as shown in FIG. 1 , the hull of the unmanned mother ship 6 includes two identical sub-hulls and is fixedly connected between the two sub-hulls The two propeller thrusters 3 are respectively arranged at the stern of the two sub-hulls, and the connecting plate acts as a "deck" to carry various working parts; the distance between the two sub-hulls should be greater than the lateral dimension of the unmanned underwater vehicle 5, so that It can be recovered between two sub-hulls; the unmanned mother ship 6 of the present invention adopts the structural form of a double hull, which can improve the carrying capacity of the mother ship 6 on the one hand, and significantly improve the stability of the mother ship 6; The device 5 can be retracted between the two sub-hulls, thereby improving the overall compactness of the system.

The unmanned underwater vehicle 5 at least includes a sealed cabin and four pairs of underwater propellers 4 connected to the outside of the sealed cabin through a connecting frame, and the four pairs of underwater propellers 4 are symmetrically installed in the sealed cabin in a vertical axis. The four corners of the body; the unmanned underwater vehicle 5 can complete its complex posture and position requirements in the underwater three-dimensional space by controlling the steering and rotational speed of the four underwater propellers 4 . The single-direction power provided by the four propellers 4 can realize rapid underwater displacement; in addition to the vertical movement mode, in other cases, the propeller 4 is required to provide additional power to maintain the required underwater depth, because the water flow can Sufficient buoyancy is provided so that the power required to maintain depth is low.

Information exchange is performed between the unmanned mother ship 6 and the unmanned underwater vehicle 5 through cables (zero buoyancy cables are used in this embodiment); the connecting plate is provided with wires for winding the cables. Spool 1, a receiving and discharging motor 8 for driving the forward or reverse rotation of the spool 1, and a conductive slip ring 2 for realizing the electrical energy and signal connection between the cable and the unmanned mother ship 6; Figure 1 As shown in the figure, a square hole is opened in the middle of the connecting plate so that the spool 1 can be embedded. The signal of the cable is connected with the electric power;

The unmanned mother ship 6 is symmetrically provided with two clamping devices 7 for fixing the unmanned underwater vehicle 5 in a retracted state; the clamping devices 7 include a clamping drive motor 9, which is fixed on the clamp Hold the crank 10 on the output shaft of the drive motor 9, the hook 12 hinged on the connecting plate and the connecting rod 11 hinged between the crank 10 and the hook 12; the crank 10, the connecting rod 11, the hook 12 and the connection The plates together form a crank rocker mechanism; the connecting plate is provided with a through hole for the hook to pass through, and the clamping driving motor 9 is fixed on the top surface of the connecting plate. When the driving crank 10 rotates, it will drive the hook 12 to swing through the connecting rod 11. ; Both sides of the unmanned underwater vehicle 5 are provided with a card slot, and the hook can be inserted into the card slot, thereby realizing the relative fixation of the underwater vehicle 5 and the mother ship 6.

The unmanned mother ship 6 carries a lithium battery for supplying power to the hull and the unmanned underwater vehicle 5, and it can also carry a generator according to the needs of use, thereby significantly improving the cruising time of the entire system.

The remote wireless control terminal is used for information exchange with the unmanned mother ship 6 by means of wireless communication; the remote wireless control terminal can be a handheld remote controller developed based on a single-chip microcomputer, or a PC equipped with a wireless communication module, or It can be a smartphone for short distances. In addition, the remote wireless control terminal and the unmanned mother ship 6 are simultaneously configured with protocols based on long-distance wireless, wifi and 5G communication, which can realize real-time interaction of control instructions, status data and video information; Information exchange is carried out through cables, avoiding the obstacles of underwater communication.

The unmanned mother ship 6 and the unmanned underwater vehicle 5 are equipped with attitude and position self-stabilizing PID controllers, encoders, locators, video collectors and/or power monitors, wherein the PID controllers accept remote wireless control at the same time End-to-end autonomous and manual pose motion control commands. The unmanned system adopts the closed-loop control mode of human-in-the-loop. The remote wireless control terminal on the shore and the operator are used as the input terminal of the system; the mother ship 6 provides signal relay for the wireless terminal on the shore and the underwater vehicle 5; the propeller thruster 3 of the mother ship 6 and the underwater thruster of the underwater vehicle 5 4 and other motors as actuators; attitude sensors, encoders, positioners, video collectors, power monitors, etc. as feedback sensors. The control signal is wirelessly transmitted from the remote wireless control terminal on the shore to the mother ship 6 antenna; the mother ship 6 controller analyzes the control signal and faces the mother ship 6 propulsion subsystem, underwater vehicle 5 retractable subsystem, underwater communication subsystem and other sub-systems. system, issuing control and communication instructions; the controller of the underwater vehicle 5 receives and analyzes the communication signal transmitted by the cable, and implements the control of the actuator; the controllers at all levels package the collected sensor data and send it to the shore control terminal processed, and finally displayed numerically and graphically.

As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 , the operation process using the split streamer type surface-underwater unmanned vehicle 5 of the present invention includes transportation, release, operation, recovery and return. The unmanned system is placed on the water surface by two operators on the shore, and the unmanned mother ship 6 is controlled to transport the underwater vehicle 5 to the area to be operated; the mother ship 6 opens the hook of the clamping device 7, and the retractable motor 8 is in the release direction Rotate until the underwater vehicle 5 reaches the specified operating depth; during the release process, the underwater vehicle 5 enters the operable state, and carries out related operations based on the control terminal signal, and the mother ship 6 can move at the same time during this period; after the operation is completed, the mother ship 6 Control the receiving and discharging motor 8 to rotate in the recovery direction until the recovery is completed; the mother ship 6 moves to the designated position under the command of the control terminal to end the task.

The above are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention. For those skilled in the art, the present invention may have various modifications and changes; all within the spirit and principle of the present invention, the Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc., are included within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims (7)

1. a split streamer type water surface-underwater unmanned vehicle, is characterized in that, comprises: An unmanned mother ship, which at least includes a hull and a propeller as a power source for the hull; An unmanned underwater vehicle, which at least includes a sealed cabin and a plurality of underwater propellers; information is exchanged between the unmanned mother ship and the unmanned underwater vehicle through cables; A remote wireless control terminal, which is used for information interaction with the unmanned mother ship by means of wireless communication. 2. The split streamer type surface-underwater unmanned vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the hull comprises two identical sub-hulls and a connection fixedly connected between the two sub-hulls The connecting plate is provided with a spool for winding the cable, a retractor for driving the spool to rotate forward or reverse, and a connection between the cable and the unmanned mother ship. Conductive slip rings for electrical and signal connections. 3. The split streamer type surface-underwater unmanned vehicle according to claim 2, wherein the unmanned mother ship is symmetrically provided with a Two clamping devices; the clamping devices include a clamping drive motor, a crank fixed on the output shaft of the clamping drive motor, a hook hinged on the connecting plate, and a hook hinged between the crank and the hook connecting rod; the crank, connecting rod, hook and connecting plate together form a crank-rocker mechanism. 4. split streamer type water surface-underwater unmanned vehicle according to claim 3, is characterized in that: described unmanned mother ship and unmanned underwater vehicle all carry attitude and position self-stabilizing PID controller, The PID controller accepts both autonomous and manual pose motion control commands from the remote wireless control terminal. 5. The split streamer type surface-underwater unmanned vehicle according to claim 4, characterized in that: the number of said propellers is two and is symmetrically arranged at the stern of the hull of the unmanned mother ship; the said There are four underwater propellers, which are symmetrically distributed on both sides of the sealed cabin through the connecting frame. 6. The split streamer type surface-underwater unmanned vehicle according to claim 5, wherein the unmanned mother ship carries a battery for powering the hull and the unmanned underwater vehicle; The unmanned mother ship may also carry a generator. 7. The split streamer type water surface-underwater unmanned vehicle according to claim 6, wherein the unmanned mother ship and the unmanned underwater vehicle can be provided with attitude sensors, encoders, positioning monitor, video collector and/or battery monitor.

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