Design of a Docking & Charging Device for Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV)

Abstract

Marine robots such as unmanned surface vehicles (USV) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) are urgently to be applied to improve the automation and intelligence of various marine tasks, including oil exploitation, pipeline maintenance, water quality monitoring, search & rescue patrol, etc. A design of a docking&charging device for unmanned surface vehicle is proposed in this paper. The unmanned surface vehicle (USV) is applied in the cooperative operation with autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to provide the AUV with lunch&recovery, contactless power transfer (CLPT), data transmission and task assignment, so as to improve the endurance and autonomy of AUVs. The docking and charging device is placed on the USV near the water surface for the AUV to dock in. A semi-spherical electromagnetic coupler and corresponding N-SP compensation are designed and applied in the CLPT system. The feasibility of the design is verified through prototype and in-water test, achieving power transfer efficiency up to 80%.