Research on the Influence of Underwater Environment on the Dynamic Performance of the Mechanical Leg of a Deep-sea Crawling and Swimming Robot

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the underwater environment affects the dynamic performance of the mechanical legs of a deep-sea robot, focusing on hydrodynamic forces, viscous resistance, and seal resistance to improve design and control.

Contribution

It develops a hydrodynamic model and experimentally analyzes viscous and seal resistances under deep-sea conditions, providing data for optimizing underwater robot legs.

Findings

Hydrodynamic force model established with fitted parameters.

Viscous resistance varies with joint speed and pressure.

Seal resistance changes with depth and joint movement.

Abstract

The performance of underwater crawling and adjustment of the body posture for underwater manipulating of the deep-sea crawling and swimming robot (DCSR) is directly influenced by the dynamic performance of the underwater mechanical legs (UWML), as it serves as the executive mechanism of the DCSR. Compared with the mechanical legs of legged robots working on land, the UWML of the DCSR not only possesses the characteristics of the land used mechanical legs, but is also affected by the influence of the deep-sea underwater working environment (i.e., the hydrodynamic force, viscous resistance and dynamic seal resistance). To reduce these influence, firstly, the hydrodynamic force of the UWML were researched based on theory and experiment, and the hydrodynamic model was established with the fitted hydrodynamic parameters. Secondly, the oil viscous resistance and the dynamic seal resistance were studied experimentally, and the change laws of both with respect to the joint speed and the ambient pressure (depth of operation) were obtained. The results provide a basis for the subsequent research on the structure optimization and high performance control of the UWML and DCSR.