Underwater Robot 2015-16

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

In the context of underwater robotics, most vehicles currently deployed have been
designed for remote control or for short duration missions. The goal of this project is to
design the body of an underwater vehicle for long term deployment and autonomy. This will
include autonomous recharging using solar cells, sufficient sensors, communication
capabilities, appropriate actuation.
The underwater environment presents unique design challenges and opportunities
which would not be encountered in, for example, a wheeled land vehicle project. The motion
of an underwater vehicle is more complex (six degrees of freedom) as compared with the
three degrees of freedom of motion on a planar surface. Additional engineering issues include
propulsion, drag, buoyancy and stability and practical construction problems include how to
waterproof electrical components. The challenge of creating a robot which can be sent to
explore a hostile and inaccessible environment is also motivating and stimulating to many
students.
Some underwater robots are controlled by built-in computers, and can operate
without any connection to the surface. These are called “Autonomous Underwater Vehicles”
(AUVs). Many underwater robots are attached to a cable that allows a human operator to
control the robot’s movements from a ship on the ocean surface. These robots are called
“Remotely Operated Vehicles” (ROVs). Ocean explorers use ROVs for many purposes,
including monitoring underwater habitats, observing fishes and other organisms, exploring
deepsea environments, investigating ship- wrecks, and studying areas too dangerous for
humans such as active underwater volcanoes. Underwater robots are essential tools of
modern ocean explorers. ROVs may be large or quite small, depending upon the jobs they are
expected to do

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CHAPTER 2
OBJECTIVE
1. The idea behind this project is to make a Remote Controlled Underwater Robot for the
purpose of exploration and other marine applications for enthusiasts and professionals in a
decent affordable budget.
2. The goal of this project is to design the body of an underwater robot with a strong focus on
efficiency, long deployment capabilities, sensors and actuators for automation.

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CHAPTER 3
DESCRIPTION
The model designed is made up of simple PVC pipes which has a diameter of 1 inch
assembled with different lengths of PVC pipes. The design uses several U joints and T joints
for assembling the ROV to the required shape. Sealing is done with the use of silicon glue to
prevent water entering in to driving system. The movements of the vehicle is controlled with
the help of Thrusters which are used for moving the vehicle in forward, backward, up, down,
left and right movements of the vehicle. The Thrusters are controlled with the Dc motors
driven by L293D driver circuit. The entire vehicle is controlled with help of a credit card size
computer Raspberry Pi [11] which is used for interfacing with various sensors like
Temperature sensor, Pressure sensor, Accelerometer, and magnetometer which are used for
measuring various physical parameters under water

Block Diagram of Underwater Robot

Fig 3.1 Block diagram

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1. Pressure sensor

Fig 3.2 Pressure sensor

A pressure sensor acquires a physical quality – pressure and converts it in to a signal
suitable for processing –electrical signal. The specific pressure sensor used in the project is
the MPL115A1 is shown in the Fig 2 which is a digital barometric pressure sensor that uses
MEMs technology to give accurate pressure measurements between 50kPa and 115kPa. The
communication takes place through the SPI interface version of the sensor. The MPL115A1
is an absolute pressure sensor with digital output for low cost applications. A Low current
consumption of 5 µA during Active mode and 1 µA during Shutdown (Sleep) mode

2. Temperature Sensor
Temperature sensor is used to measure the temperature. It acquires a physical quality
– temperature and converts it in to a signal suitable for processing –electrical signal using a
display unit that is attached to a system which uses an inter integrated circuits for
communication (I2C). It is a monolithic
Temperature sensor that generates a modulated serial digital output (PWM) which varies in
direct proportion to the temperature of the devices. The high period (TH) of the PWM
remains static over all temperatures, while the low period (TL) varies. It offers a high
temperature accuracy of ±1°C from -55 to 150°C with excellent transducer linearity

3. Power Supply
A power supply is a device that supplies electrical energy to one or more electric
loads. The term is most commonly applied to devices that convert one form of electrical
energy to another, though it may also refer to devices that convert another form of energy
(e.g., mechanical, chemical, solar) to electrical energy. The supply voltage is 12v. The supply
voltage is provided with the use of battery

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4. Dc motor
A dc motor is a machine which converts electrical energy into mechanical energy
which can be utilized for controlling the thruster. It works on the principle of Fleming’s Left
hand rule. The dc motor is driven by the driver circuit LN293D which is used for driving the
dc motor. A single driver can drive two dc motors .since four dc motors are used two drivers
are required to drive four dc motors L293D is a typical Motor driver or Motor Driver IC
which allows DC motor to drive on either direction. L293D is a 16-pin IC which can control
a set of two DC motors simultaneously in any direction. It has a Dual H-bridge Motor Driver
integrated circuit (IC).

5. Accelerometer

Fig 3.3 Accelerometer

The accelerometer which is used for measuring the speed is MMA7361 shown in the
Fig 3. MMA7361L is a three-axis analog MEMS accelerometer. The sensor requires a very
low amount of power and has a g-select input which switches the accelerometer between
±1.5g and ±6g measurement ranges. The MMA7361L is a low power, low profile capacitive
micro machined accelerometer featuring signal conditioning, a 1-pole low pass
filter ,temperature compensation, self-test, 0g-Detect which detects linear free-fall, and g-
Select which allows for the selection between 2 sensitivities.

6. Raspberry pi
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Fig 3.4 Raspberry pi

The microcontroller used in the project is Raspberry pi shown in the Fig. 4 which
measures the analog parameters such as temperature, pressure and display the values with the
help of a display unit. In addition it can be used for controlling the movements of the system
with the help of the thruster which can be moved to the required position with the help of a dc
motor driven by driver IC L293D.Raspberry Pi has
a Broadcom BCM 2835 system on chip (SoC), which includes an ARM1176JZF, 700
MHZ Processor, video core GPU and was originally shipped with 256 Megabytes of RAM,
later upgraded with 512 MB (model B and B+). It does not include a built-in hard disk or
solid-state drive but it uses an SD card for booting and persistent storage, with them model
B+ using a Micro SD and has a 32 bit processor. Tools are available for Python as the main
programming language, with support for BBC BASIC.Raspberry pi [8] does not work with
windows operating system and it needs a separating operating system Linux for
programming. It has an excellent capability for image processing, video streaming and the
ability to work based on internet of things.

7. Display
HDMI monitor is not available to use with a raspberry pi. It can be very useful to
connect remotely using nearby network and laptop. When there is no network available the
laptop screen and keyboard can be used with the help of a TTL serial cable, which provides
only slow access. A good way to remotely control a raspberry pi is to connect to a network a
use any of the above method. This will provide access to the terminal by using SSH, with the
ability to view desktop using VNC and the ability to run graphical programs directly on the
laptop itself. If raspberry pi is directly connected to a network it will try to automatically find
an IP address by requesting from the router or other device running a DHCP server.
However, if there is no DHCP server the pi won’t get an IP address.

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8. Magnetometer
The magnetometer is used for finding the direction of the system .The magnetometer
used is HMC6352 which can be used for finding the direction. The HMC6352 shown in the
Fig 4 is a fully integrated compass module that combines 2-axis magneto resistive sensors
with the required analog and digital support circuits, microprocessor and algorithms for
heading computation. By combining the sensor elements, processing electronics, and
firmware in to 6.5mm by 6.5mm by 1.5mm LCC package, Honeywell offers a complete,
ready to use electronic compass. This provides design engineers with the simplest solution to
integrate high volume, cost effective compasses into wireless consumer electronics, vehicle
compassing, and antenna positioning

Fig 3.5 Magnetometer

II.H/W components required & S/W platform/ packages required:

Sr.no Component List

1. Raspberry Pi Development Kit
2. Raspberry Pi Camera
3. Laptop or Computer
4. Waterproof Motors
5. Ethernet Cable
6. PVC Tubes & Acrylic Sheet

Table.1 Component list

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CHAPTER 4
APPLICATIONS

1. Underwater robot for cleaning oil/gas platform structure.

2. Execute an inspection of a dam wall to search for cracks or other

Damages on the concrete.

3. Fault analysis in sophisticated underwater system

4. Capturing high resolution images of deep underwater flora

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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION
Thus underwater vehicles play an important role in monitoring, protecting and
maintaining the Aquatic Ecosystem which is polluted by leakage in oil spills, accidents
caused due to ships etc. Hence measuring the parameters like temperature, pressure can be
used for surveillance in the aquatic ecosystem Temperature sensor Tmp106 and pressure
sensor MPL115A1 are used for measuring temperature and pressure and display these
parameters. Thrusters are used for moving to the required direction controlled with the dc
motors driven by driver IC L293D.Accelerometer MMA7361 is used for speed control and
Magnetic compass HMC6352 is used for finding the direction. Robotics technologies

Fig 5.1 PVC and VECHICLE assembly

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REFERENCE

[1]Roberto Christi and Anthony Healey.J, (2012),”Adaptive Sliding Mode Control of

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle in Dive Plane”

[2]Prof.Sharma.P.B, Prof .Sinha.R.K, (2010) “Design and development of the Autonomous

under Water Vehicle ‘ZYRA’, Robosub Competition Journal Paper, pp. 143-150

[3] www.instructables.com

[4] www.crazypi.com

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