Preliminary experiments of dynamic buoyancy adjusting device with an assist spring

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a dynamic buoyancy adjusting device with an assist spring for underwater robot survey. The purpose of this device is to prevent underwater robots from agitating the water and sand during underwater survey and sampling. The proposed buoyancy adjusting device is actuated by an electric motor with a passive spring that provides some assistance to the motor. The assist spring supports actuator torque and allows low gear. As a result, the proposed device would achieve better energy efficiency and higher speed for dynamic control. To evaluate the performance of the proposed device, we designed and developed a dynamic buoyancy adjusting device as a prototype. Preliminary experiments indicate that the proposed device could be used for dynamic control of underwater robots. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.