441 results about "Unmanned underwater vehicle" patented technology

A quadrotor UAV including ruggedized, integral-battery, load-bearing body, two arms on the load-bearing body, each arm having two rotors, a control module mounted on the load-bearing body, a payload module mounted on the control module, and skids configured as landing gear. The two arms are replaceable with arms having wheels for ground vehicle use, with arms having floats and props for water-surface use, and with arms having pitch-controlled props for underwater use. The control module is configured to operate as an unmanned aerial vehicle, an unmanned ground vehicle, an unmanned (water) surface vehicle, and an unmanned underwater vehicle, depending on the type of arms that are attached.

An unmanned system for investigating underwater regions utilizes an unmanned mothership and a plurality of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). The mothership transports the UUVs to and from the vicinity of an underwater region, releases the UUVs into the water, and facilitates recovery of the UUVs from the water. Each UUV can traverse an underwater region, generate sonar and image data associated with the underwater region, and transmit the sonar and image data through the water for receipt and re-transmission by the mothership. A docking system mounted partially onboard the mothership and partially onboard each UUV couples each UUV to the mothership and selectively releases each UUV into the underwater region. A guidance system mounted partially onboard the mothership and partially onboard each UUV guides each UUV back to the docking system from positions in the water. The mothership and UUVs can also be equipped with a non-contact electrical energy transfer system so that each UUV can return to the mothership and re-charge onboard batteries while underwater.

An hybrid unmanned underwater vehicle comprises a body housing a controller; a vector thruster for propelling the body; deployable wings allowing the unmanned underwater vehicle to traverse by gliding as the unmanned underwater vehicle ascends and descends; a center-of-mass shifter for shifting a center-of-mass of the vehicle to allow the unmanned underwater vehicle to pitch up and pitch down; and one of a multi-stage buoyancy control system within the body and configured to adjust an apparent displacement of the unmanned underwater vehicle and an expandable outer shell configured to adjust an apparent displacement and therefore a buoyancy of the unmanned underwater vehicle.

An autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle (“AUV”) includes a body, a controller, a buoyancy engine, a rotary propulsion system and pitch control surface(s). The buoyancy engine is for alternately ingesting and expelling ambient water to change the mass of the AUV and thereby cause the AUV to alternately descend and ascend in the water. The pitch control surface(s) are for causing the AUV to move forward while alternately descending and ascending in the water. The rotary propulsion system includes a motor for rotating a propeller in the water to provide thrust. The controller is operative for responsively, automatically switching between at least the glider and rotary propulsion modes. In the glider mode, the buoyancy engine and the pitch control surface(s) are cooperative for causing the AUV to move forward while alternately descending and ascending. In the rotary propulsion mode, the rotary propulsion system is operative for causing the AUV to move forward.

The present invention relates to sonar beamforming systems and methods, using a forward-looking sonar having transmit and receive transducer arrays with a beamforming device and at least one side-looking sonar having dynamically range-focused beams. The forward-looking sonar provides for obstacle avoidance and undersea survey. The systems include one-dimensional transmit and receive transducer arrays with beamforming electronics, a computing controller such as, for example, a personal computer host controller. The arrays and beamforming electronics can be packaged in a hermetically sealed housing unit and mounted in Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV). The side-looking sonar system includes for example, 32-element, one-dimensional arrays that are mounted on either side of the UUVs. Further, a downward looking Bathymetric sonar may be mounted on the underside of the vehicle for high-resolution mapping.

The present invention relates to an unmanned underwater vehicle for tracking and homing in on submarines. The unmanned underwater vehicle comprises a propulsion unit and at least one attachment device for attaching the vehicle to the hull of a submarine. The at least one attachment device may comprise at least one movable corkscrew and / or at least one movable permanent magnet. The at least one corkscrew may be used when the submarine hull is coated with an elastomeric material. The at least one permanent magnet may be used when the submarine hull is ferrous and uncoated or thinly coated. A method for intercepting and covertly reporting the activities of a submarine using the unmanned underwater vehicle is also described.

A charging system for an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) is disposed within a submerged docking station. The charging system includes a battery, one or more generators, and a charge controller. The battery supplies electrical power to an electrical distribution bus in the docking station. The charge controller monitors the charge state of the battery and, when needed, activates one or more of the generators to recharge the battery. The charge controller also activates one or more of the generators when a UUV is docked in the docking station for recharging of its power plant.

The invention provides a sliding-mode control method for parameter-free driving-insufficient UUV (Unmanned Underwater Vehicle) vertical plane route tracking. The sliding-mode control method comprises the following steps: I, performing initialization; II, acquiring a current state of a UUV; III, establishing an error equation of the horizontal plane of the driving-free UUV so as to obtain position deviation values xe and ze and course deviation value theta e; IV, according to a sliding-mode control method, respectively designing traveling speed sliding-mode self-adaptive control rules, position sliding-mode control rules and trimming angle sliding-mode self-adaptive control rules, controlling propelling force Xprop, an excepted traveling speed U and a torque Mprop, wherein eu is 0, xe is 0 and theta e is 0; V, designing fuzzy control rules for a boundary layer, setting k to be equal to k+1, turning to step II, and updating control rules and self-adaptive rules of a next time. By adopting the sliding-mode control method, a controller for stabilizing a system can be designed only according to a vertical surface kinetic model, self-adaptive rules can be designed for water kinetic parameters with uncertainties, furthermore a control system can be relieved from dependency on parameters, the system has robustness, and the influence of the uncertainties on the sliding-mode control approaching process can be reduced.

An encapsulated module (14) for an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) (V) is formed with an operational component (16) and encapsulating material (60). The encapsulant (60) forms a rigid capsule surrounding the operational component (16). The capsule (14) has a least one exterior surface (18) that assists in forming the exterior surface (26) of the UUV (V) when the capsule (14) is combined into the UUV (V).

The present invention relates to a UUV track tracking control optimization method under environmental interference, and aims to solve the existing problem that the accuracy of the conventional UUV track tracking control is low. The UUV track tracking control optimization method under the environmental interference is realized by the following technical scheme having a step 1 of establishing a UUV horizontal plane mathematical model; a step 2 of carrying out the PID control on the basis of the UUV horizontal plane mathematical model, and realizing the UUV track tracking control; a step 3 of improving the PID control on the basis of the UUV track tracking control, and determining a nonlinear control law and an observer. The UUV track tracking control optimization method under the environmental interference is applied to the UUV field.

A charging system for an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) is disposed within a submerged docking station. The charging system includes a battery, one or more generators, and a charge controller. The battery supplies electrical power to an electrical distribution bus in the docking station. The charge controller monitors the charge state of the battery and, when needed, activates one or more of the generators to recharge the battery. The charge controller also activates one or more of the generators when a UUV is docked in the docking station for recharging of its power plant.

The invention provides an under-actuated AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) three-dimensional trajectory tracking control method based on biological speed regulation. The method comprises the following steps: (1) giving expected trajectory position information by an AUV according to the current task, and obtaining current position and attitude information; (2) obtaining position and attitude error variables by use of the mathematical model of an under-actuated UUV (unmanned underwater vehicle); (3) calculating a virtual control law by a method of defining a virtual speed error variable; (4) finishing dynamic regulation of the speed error through a biological inspiration model; and (5) deducing a dynamic speed regulation controller. In the method provided by the invention, the speed error of the under-actuated AUV can be dynamically regulated, the performance of the controller is improved while the singular value of the traditional back-stepping method occurring when the heading angle error is 90 degrees is avoided, and accurate tracking of a time-varying three-dimensional trajectory is realized under external constant disturbance.

Active acoustic damping is provided with a motor or similar propulsive element such as a multi-phase brushless direct current (DC) motor. To produce the appropriate canceling effect with the motor, the relationship between the operating mode of the motor and the noise produced is observed. This data can be used to identify a relevant transfer function that can be applied to produce a control signal for the motor. For a multi-phase motor, the current control signals provided to at least one phase may be made asymmetric with respect to the other phases to produce actuating forces upon the motor. This actuating force can be used to modify acoustic signals produced by the motor. The active acoustic damping techniques may be applied in any vehicles or devices, including unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), in either an open loop or closed loop manner.

The invention, which belongs to the field of unmanned underwater vehicle control research, particularly relates to an under-actuated UUV trajectory tracking sliding-mode control method for the input time lag. On the basis of the control idea of the cascaded system, longitudinal, heading and pitching control laws of an integrated time-delay sliding mode for eliminating the virtual control error arecalculated for external unknown boundary disturbance and parameter perturbation; according to the control laws, the longitudinal speed, heading angle, and pitching angle speed of the UUV are adjusted, thereby completing the UUV trajectory tracking sliding-mode control process. According to the invention, the virtual under-actuated UUV is established and the under-actuated UUV trajectory trackingcontrol problem is converted into the tracking error stabilization problem, so that the computing process is simplified; with the sliding-mode control, the control performance and robustness of the system are enhanced; and the time constraint requirements of the position, speed and attitude by under-actuated UUV three-dimensional trajectory tracking are met.

Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV) collect and transmit information about ice floes with respect to their areal extent, vertical underwater profile, thickness, density, location, speed, direction and other properties to determine the possible trajectory of the ice floe. This information is used to alert drilling platforms in icy ocean conditions of pending ice floe dangers.

An Endurance Extension Module (EXM) for powering an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle. The EXM converts wave motion to locomotive thrust, towing the UUV from point to point or keeping it in place against an opposing current. The EXM may also supply the UUV with electricity for driving an electric motor or powering on-board electronics. The EXM can be refracted onto the UUV when not in use to minimize drag, or it can release the UUV as prologue to a subsequent rendezvous. The EXM-UUV combinations of this invention allow extended autonomous missions over wider territory for purposes such as surveying, monitoring conditions, or delivering cargo.

The invention belongs to the technical field of unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicle and relates to a sea-air-land-dive quadrangle tiling three-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle with the capacity of vehicle take-off and landing. By means of controlling diving gear and a tilting three-rotor device, a vertical take-off and landing mode, a fixed-wing mode, a surface navigation mode and an underwater diving mode of the unmanned aerial vehicle are switched thereamong, the advantages of four kinds of the unmanned aerial vehicles are achieved, and applicable performance, controllability and efficiency of the unmanned aerial vehicle are enhanced. Compared with a traditional multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle, the sea-air-land-dive quadrangle tiling three-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle with an efficient power system has the advantages that duration of flight and flight range are obviously increased due to the additional arrangement of the fixed-wing mode; the sea-air-land-dive quadrangle tiling three-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle is applicable to multiple scenarios like operations on flat ground, mountains, water surface and underwater, and appointed tasks on air, land, water surface and underwater investigation, mapping, sheltering and the like can be completed.

The invention relates to an unmanned underwater vehicle IVFH (intelligent vector field histogram) collision avoidance method, in particular, an unmanned underwater vehicle two-dimensional IVFH (intelligent vector field histogram) collision avoidance method. With the method adopted, an unmanned underwater vehicle can obtain the location information of an obstacle through processing sensor data in a navigation process, so that the unmanned underwater vehicle can focus on security and rapidity, and the unmanned underwater vehicle can have a certain intelligence like human beings; and reasonable collision avoidance actions can be decided based on factors such as the distance of the obstacle, the distance of a target point, free grid percentage and known field of vision percentage, for example, course and navigational speed instructions can be determined, so that the unmanned underwater vehicle can avoid the obstacle so as to prevent danger. The method of the invention is suitable for collision avoidance conditions of unmanned underwater vehicles.

The invention belongs to the technical field of trace tracking and dynamic sliding mode control of a UUV (unmanned underwater vehicle), and particularly relates to a UUV trace tracking method based on dynamic sliding mode control. The method comprises the following steps: building a UUV horizontal plane model; obtaining an error variable through coordinate transformation, and performing derivation on the error variable to obtain a derivative coefficient of the error variable; constructing a lyapunov function, and defining a virtual speed control variable to transform attitude tracking into virtual speed control; stabilizing the virtual speed control variable, adaptively estimating system parameter inaccuracy and external time-varying disturbance by a sliding mode control method, and constructing a sliding mode dynamic function; selecting a dynamic sliding mode control law to realize trace tracking of the UUV. By the combination of a backstepping method and an adaptive dynamic sliding mode control technology, the possible problems of modeling uncertainty and unknown environmental disturbance of UUV planar trace tracking and the problem of uncertain system parameters are solved.

An unmanned underwater vehicle incorporates a structure having an integral scintillating material for a radiation detector and detection electronics connected to the radiation detector for measurement of the scintillation. A communication system is employed for transmission of scintillation measurement to a remote facility and a navigation control system provides for autonomous operation of the unmanned underwater vehicle or remote operation through the communications system

An Endurance Extension Module (EXM) for powering an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle. The EXM converts wave motion to locomotive thrust, towing the UUV from point to point or keeping it in place against an opposing current. The EXM may also supply the UUV with electricity for driving an electric motor or powering on-board electronics. The EXM can be refracted onto the UUV when not in use to minimize drag, or it can release the UUV as prologue to a subsequent rendezvous. The EXM-UUV combinations of this invention allow extended autonomous missions over wider territory for purposes such as surveying, monitoring conditions, or delivering cargo.

The invention provides a multi-UUV (Unmanned Underwater Vehicle) cooperative system underwater target tracking algorithm for a fuzzy adaptive interacting multiple model (FAIMM). Firstly, according to the bearing-only target tracking principle of the multi-UUV cooperative system, a discrete nonlinear state and observation equation for the target tracking system is built; then, according to the characteristics of underwater target motion, in combination of five kinds of target motion modes, analysis is carried out according to the dynamic state transition matrix, the coupled inequality relation among the five modes is put forward, and a motion mode set adapted to underwater target tracking is selected optimally; then, an intermediate Gauss distribution function is adopted as a membership function, a mode probability is used as an evaluation index for filter information and corresponding covariance acquired by each mode, and fuzzy reasoning for the mode transition probability is designed; and finally, the FAIMM algorithm is designed and realized. During the multi-UUV cooperative system bearing-only target tracking process, the least number of target motion sets is selected, adaptive change of the mode transition probability is realized through the fuzzy reasoning, disordered competition among the modes are reduced, the filter accuracy is higher, and demands of multi-UUV cooperative system underwater target tracking can be met.

The invention aims at providing an autonomous collision-preventing device for an underwater AUV / UUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle / Unmanned Underwater Vehicle) platform, which comprises a casing, a horizontal transducer array, a vertical upward transducer, a vertical downward transducer, an underwater acoustic signal conditioning unit, a transmitting unit, an underwater acoustic signal processing unit, an input / output interface unit, a pressure sensor and a battery pack, wherein the horizontal transducer array is arranged at the front end in the casing; the vertical upward transducer and the vertical downward transducer are respectively arranged above and below the casing; and the transmitting unit, the underwater acoustic signal conditioning unit, the underwater acoustic signal processing unit, the input / output interface unit, the pressure sensor and the battery pack are respectively arranged in the casing. The autonomous collision-preventing device has the advantages of autonomous detection and recognition capability, capability of outputting specific position and distance information of an obstacle, easiness in installation and operation, high precision, high reliability and wide application range.

The invention discloses an underwater unmanned operation aquaculture robot. An unmanned underwater vehicle is connected with a remote control station through a communication cable; a base plate is provided with a frame and a hydraulic system; the frame is provided with a communication interface, a plurality of propellers and a control system; the communication interface is connected with the communication cable; a rear buoyancy unit is connected with the frame through a frame side plate; the rear buoyancy unit is connected with a front buoyancy unit; the front buoyancy unit is provided with a plurality of cameras; the frame is provided with two mechanical arms; the base plate is provided with a bait storage tank and a feeding and capture execution device which are connected with each other. According to the underwater unmanned operation aquaculture robot, the working capability is high, the corrosion resistance to the seawater is high, carried operation tools are more, the manipulation is simple, the object grabbing technology is accurate, the combination is rapid and convenient, the function configuration is flexible and diverse, the efficiency is high, and the cost is low.

An unmanned underwater vehicle for use in water and with at least one acoustic signal source includes a vehicle body, a steering mechanism to direct the vehicle body through the water, a propulsion device to force the vehicle body through the water, and an adaptive Doppler guidance and control (ADGC) system. The ADGC system is configured to receive acoustic signals from the at least one acoustic signal source and to control the steering mechanism using changes in at least one frequency component of the received acoustic signals caused by Doppler shifts.

The invention discloses an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) trajectory sight guiding method with the sideslip angle considered under the condition of environmental disturbance and relates to under-actuated UUV trajectory tracking control methods. When a traditional UUV trajectory sight guiding method is used under the condition of environmental disturbance, stable trajectory errors exist. To eliminate the stable trajectory errors, the sideslip angle B=a tan (v / u) is directly introduced to correct the expected heading instruction, the corrected heading expected angle Qd=Bi-a(t)-B is used for adjusting the heading angle, and then the stable trajectory errors can be eliminated and accurate tracking of the UUV trajectory is achieved. The method is suitable for under-actuated UUV trajectory tracking control.

A charging system for an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) is disposed within a submerged docking station. The charging system includes a battery, a fuel cell, a fuel source, and a charge controller. The battery supplies electrical power to an electrical distribution bus in the docking station. The charge controller monitors the charge state of the battery and, when needed, activates the fuel cell to recharge the battery. The charge controller also activates the fuel cell when a UUV is docked in the docking station for recharging of its power plant.

The invention discloses a UUV (unmanned underwater vehicle) dynamic planning method based on an LSTM-RNN (long short term memory-recurrent neural network), and belongs to the field of unmanned underwater vehicles. The UUV dynamic planning method includes the steps: (1) selecting a geometric model to build an obstacle environment model; (2) building a UUV dynamic planner for acquiring a data set byan ant colony algorithm; (3) designing an LSTM-RNN model for dynamic planning; (4) acquiring the data set; (5) training the LSTM-RNN by data of a training set in the data set to obtain the dynamic planner based on the LSTM-RNN; (6) inputting sonar detection information and target point information to the dynamic planner based on the LSTM-RNN to obtain the navigational direction and the navigational speed of a UUV at a next time. The method has strong learning capacity and further has quite strong generalization capacity, so that the implemented dynamic planner is applicable to complex environments. The requirement of real-time performance is met, and planned routes conform to movement characteristics of the UUV.