Design and Simulation of a Collaborative Propulsion System for the Underwater Robot

Abstract

The design of propulsion system is a very critical task because it determines the performance of underwater robots, such as maneuverability and endurance and so on. Generally, it is a challenge to develop a propulsion system which can make tradeoff among multiple degree-of-freedom (DOF) motions, simple and compact structure and low power consumption. Thus, we are motivated to propose a collaborative propulsion system for the underwater robot and its unique reconfigurable structure makes vectorial propulsion possible.