Design and Implementation of a Biomimetic Turtle Hydrofoil for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Sensors

Davinia Font²  Marcel Tresanchez²  Cedric Siegentahler¹  Tomàs Pallejಠ Mercè Teixidó²  Cedric Pradalier¹ 

[1] Autonomous System Lab, Tannenstrasse 3 CLA E 14, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland; E-Mails:;Department of Computer Science and Industrial Engineering, University of Lleida, Jaume II, 69, Lleida 25001, Spain; E-Mails:

关键词: AUV;    DoF;    sea turtle locomotion;    propulsion system;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s111211168

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

This paper presents the design and implementation of a turtle hydrofoil for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The final design of the AUV must have navigation performance like a turtle, which has also been the biomimetic inspiration for the design of the hydrofoil and propulsion system. The hydrofoil design is based on a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) 0014 hydrodynamic profile. During the design stage, four different propulsion systems were compared in terms of propulsion path, compactness, sealing and required power. The final implementation is based on a ball-and-socket mechanism because it is very compact and provides three degrees of freedom (DoF) to the hydrofoil with very few restrictions on the propulsion path. The propulsion obtained with the final implementation of the hydrofoil has been empirically evaluated in a water channel comparing different motion strategies. The results obtained have confirmed that the proposed turtle hydrofoil controlled with a mechanism with three DoF generates can be used in the future implementation of the planned AUV.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2011 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.