Hydrodynamic Analysis and Structural Optimization of an Underwater Robot

Abstract

Abstract BYSQ-2 is an amphibious spherical exploring robot which can move flexibly in water and on land, it has good water pressure resistance and can perform a rotational motion with a zero degree turn radius. But the actual experiment results show the shortcoming of the robot is the low maximum surge speed. The main objective in this paper is to improve the maximum surge speed and alleviate the heavy pendulum’s oscillation. Firstly, the hydrodynamic coupling under different structural parameters and propeller working states is analyzed by using CFD method, the influence of structure parameters and propeller rotation speed on thrust and water resistance are summarized, based on the optimal structural parameters, the new generation robot with better performance is designed. The simulation and experiment results show the validity of the new design scheme.