Drive Control of a Small AUV with a Rotating Hull as a Propulsion Mechanism

Abstract

The prototype AUV(Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) has a propulsion mechanism that rotates the sealed outer shell, but there was a problem that the internal drive and control unit also rotated due to the viscous resistance of the water and the reaction torque. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose and verify a method to suppress the rotation of the drive control unit due to the reaction torque. The proposed method is based on the assumption that the counter-torque of the drive control unit is offset by the rotational torque of the flywheel. In order to prove this assumption, we conducted a control experiment in which the flywheel motor rotates at the same angular velocity as the drive control unit. As a result of the experiment, it was confirmed that the flywheel motor can follow the rotating drive control unit.