Hydrodynamic Performance Enhancement of Unmanned Underwater Gliders with Soft Robotic Morphing Wings for Agility Improvement

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that integrating soft morphing wings into underwater unmanned vehicles significantly improves hydrodynamic efficiency, extending operational range and enhancing maneuverability through structural and CFD simulations.

Contribution

It introduces the use of soft robotic morphing wings for UUVs, showing a nearly 10% efficiency increase over rigid wings, which is a novel approach in underwater vehicle design.

Findings

Soft wings increase efficiency by 9.75%

Simulations confirm performance benefits of morphing wings

Potential for pressure-agnostic operation in UUVs

Abstract

This work assesses the hydrodynamic efficiency of Underwater Unmanned Vehicles (UUVs) equipped with soft morphing wings compared to conventional rigid wings. Unlike rigid wings, deformable counterparts can alter their aerodynamic properties on demand. Improvements in hydrodynamic efficiency extend a UUV's operational range and may determine mission feasibility. Structural and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted for both a soft morphing wing and a UUV incorporating it. The results show that a UUV employing soft wings achieves 9.75 percent higher overall efficiency than an equivalent vehicle with traditional rigid wings. These findings confirm the potential of soft robotics to enhance underwater vehicle performance, particularly in applications requiring pressure-agnostic operation.