An underwater dual-mode robot with simultaneous swimming and crawling functions: Design and experiment

• Published in: Ocean engineering Vol. 309; p. 118349
• Main Authors: Gong, Qingshuo, Zhang, Wei, Zhang, Honghan, Yang, Haoyu, Sun, Ruichi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2024
• Subjects: Crawling mode; Swimming mode; Switching control; Underwater robot; Swimming mode; Crawling mode; Switching control; Underwater robot
• ISSN: 0029-8018; 1873-5258
• DOI: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2024.118349

In this paper, the development of a novel navigation crawl double-state vehicle (NCDSV) with both swimming and crawling functions is described. First, for the characteristics of the NCDSV, an integrated control framework for swimming and crawling based on the central pattern generator (CPG) is proposed for generating control signals for the multimodal motion of the NCDSV. Then, in swimming mode, the NCDSV combines a water tank and pectoral fins to realize rapid dive and depth control, which increases the dive speed by more than four times compared with the use of pectoral fins alone. In addition, a mode switching mechanism was designed, and a soft switching strategy based on a logistic function was proposed to realize the free switching of motion modes. Finally, the forward speed, heading control, depth control, and motion mode switching control of the NCDSV were experimentally tested in a pool. The effectiveness of the proposed method was evaluated. •A CPG-based integrated control framework for swimming and crawling is proposed.•In swimming mode, the NCDSV uses a water tank plus pectoral fins in conjunction to achieve rapid dive and depth control.•A soft switching strategy based on the logistic function is proposed, which can realize smooth mode switching of the NCDSV.