DESIGN AND STUDY OF AUTONOMOUS UNDERWATER VEHICLE ROLL NO: CDS14M002 BY: CHETAN SONI GUIDE : Dr. S.R.PANDIAN

MOTIVATION

India being a peninsular country and has immense archeological sites which are submerged in water, which provides an opportunity for underwater exploration. Indigenously developed Autonomous Underwater Vehicles will enhance the mapping and exploration capabilities of the vast coastlines of peninsular India.

The existing system for underwater exploration is too costly and out of researchers reach. The aim of this thesis is to develop a cost-effective prototype vehicle that has the capability of autonomous operation in the subsea environment. The tasks involved in autonomous driving are path planning, navigation and position control.

OBJECTIVE

To develop an autonomous underwater vehicle which can drive itself to

point of interest and holds the position underwater

SYSTEM OVERVIEW

METHODOLOGY

The destination location and the corresponding point coordinates is

entered in the developed Graphical User Interface (GUI) in computer at boat.

The on board IMU magnetometer provides the heading direction of the

vehicle. The Raspberry– Pi processes sensor data, and generates command

signals to move the vehicle in appropriate direction, as per the path planned

by the system. The control signals from the Arduino are provided to the

Electronic Speed Controllers (ESC). The ESC’s provides sufficient current and

voltage to the BLDC motors to provide locomotion to the vehicle.

WORKDONE

Software system implementation

The algorithm of the implemented system is first user will insert the

destination GPS point as well as the depth it has to reach on GUI

(Graphical User Interface) as presented below, as the vehicle reaches the

destination point position control algorithm has been developed using

promotional controller to hold the position of the vehicle

Fig : Created GUI

Position Control

Hardware Implementation

All the processing of sensor signals is handled by Raspberry- Pi. Serial

communication between Arduino- Uno and Raspberry-Pi has been

established using Tx- Rx pin connections. Motor control signals are

handled by Arduino. IMU and GPS are directly connected to Raspberry- Pi.

Fig : Block diagram of the system

Thruster Specifications

S.No Characteristics T100 T200

1. Max thrust forward 2.36 kgf 5.1 kgf

3. RPM 300 – 4200 rev/min 300 – 3800 rev/min

4. Max Voltage 12 v 6-20 v

Current 11.5 amp 25 amp

Power 300 watts 350 watts

Electrical System Implementation

One of the major problems in underwater robots is deciding a proper

electrical distribution strategy which involves selection of tether cable (if

powering from the boat) selection of battery and regulation of voltage for

electronics components inside the hull.

Fig : Power board

Assembled Electronics Plate

Having high voltage components inside the hull with signal wires it

was increasingly tedious to keep and differentiate the placement of the

components on 9x25 cm acrylic plate.

To restrict electromagnetic interference among the components we

kept all the high voltage circuitry down side of the hull and all the low

voltage devices on the top of the plate, with this arrangement we achieve

negligible EMI effect.

Fig : Assembled Electronics Plate

Vehicle Design and implementation

Fig : Top and front view of AUV

Raspberry

– Pi

GPS

Destination point

IMU GPS

Sensor

Motors

Orientation & heading

angle

Control Commands

Depth

Sensor

Arduino

Results and conclusion

Design and development AUV frame has been done and tested

GPS navigation implemented and tested on ground

Position control using depth sensor data implemented and tested

Testing in larger water body has to be done

Implemented AUV

Applications

Inspection of underwater artifacts with added camera and light

Vehicle for various payloads such as SONAR, Underwater

manipulator

References

[1] H. Bohm and V. Jensen, “Introduction to Underwater Technology & Vehicle

Design”, by Marine Advanced Technology Education Center, Monterey

Peninsular College, 2004

[2] M. Shoab, K. Jain, M. Anulhaq and M. Shashi, "Development and

implementation of NMEA interpreter for real time GPS data logging,"

Advance Computing Conference (IACC), 2013 IEEE 3rd International,

Ghaziabad, 2013

[3] International submarine engineering web-based AUV design info. [online],

2016. Available: http://www.ise.bc.ca/auv.html

[4] Blue Robotics forum - https://forum.bluerobotics.com

[5] P. A. Miller, J. A. Farrell, Y. Zhao and V. Djapic, "Autonomous Underwater

Vehicle Navigation," in IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, vol. 35, no. 3, July

2010

Fig. : System Overview

Fig. : System components

Fig. : Position control test

Signatures —

Student Guide

Current location