Modelling and Identification of hydrodynamic parameters of an underwater robotic vehicle.

Esta tese apresenta um procedimento de identificação experimental de coeficientes hidrodinâmicos de veículos submarinos não tripulados. Apresenta-se o desenvolvimento de uma plataforma experimental para pesquisas em dinâmica, controle e navegação de veículos submarinos. A plataforma experimental inclui: 1) um veículo submarino não tripulado semi-autônomo do tipo estrutura-aberta chamado de LAURS, 2) um sistema multissensorial e multipropulsores para o controle de movimento, e 3) software e arquitetura de controle para a aquisição de dados dos sensores e o controle de movimento. A fim de deduzir as equações do movimento dinâmico do LAURS, apresenta-se a formulação geral das equações hidrodinâmicas não lineares de um veículo submarino com seis graus de liberdade. A partir destas equações gerais acopladas, são deduzidos modelos mais simples para um grau de liberdade (movimento unidirecional) e três graus de liberdade (movimento planar) do veículo. O método de estimação de parâmetros utilizado neste trabalho não requer medidas de aceleração e é baseado na aplicação da técnica dos mínimos quadrados à forma integral das equações dinâmicas do sistema. O procedimento de identificação proposto é baseado na informação dos sensores embarcados. Primeiramente, os coeficientes de arrasto são obtidos a partir de testes de velocidade constante e depois, fixando os coeficientes de arrasto do modelo matemático com estes valores obtidos, são identificados a inércia virtual e os coeficientes de acoplamento a partir de testes de velocidade variável. Nos testes de velocidade variável são aplicadas entradas de força do tipo senoidal. Apresentam-se os valores dos coeficientes hidrodinâmicos para os movimentos de avanço, deriva, arfagem, guinada e caturro do veículo, os quais foram obtidos usando o procedimento de identificação proposto. O desempenho dos modelos dinâmicos identificados é quantitativamente comparado ao movimento do veículo observado experimentalmente. Para o caso dos testes de velocidade constante em avanço e arfagem, foi feita uma comparação dos valores dos coeficientes obtidos usando a abordagem de identificação de sistemas com os dados obtidos a partir dos ensaios de reboque em tanque de provas. Os resultados obtidos validam o procedimento de identificação proposto. Além disso, são apresentados os resultados experimentais obtidos a partir de manobras do tipo zig-zag e é feita uma discussão da identificabilidade de coeficientes de modelos acoplados. Conclui-se que o procedimento de identificação proposto é eficaz na obtenção de valores reais (consistentes com a concepção física do veículo) para os coeficientes hidrodinâmicos de veículos submarinos. A fim de modelar a força hidrodinâmica que atua no veículo em avanço com movimento oscilatório e amplitudes menores do que um comprimento característico, são apresentados os resultados dos ensaios de oscilação forçada usando um mecanismo de movimento planar (MMP). Apresentam-se os valores dos coeficientes de arrasto e de inércia obtidos a partir dos ensaios em avanço no MMP para diferentes números de Keulegan-Carpenter. Os resultados mostram que os coeficientes de arrasto e de inércia para a faixa de velocidades de 0,1 até 0,8m/s dependem fortemente do número de Keulegan-Carpenter e não do número de Reynolds. A partir destes resultados, conclui-se que a amplitude da oscilação do veículo é o principal fator que causa a variação dos coeficientes hidrodinâmicos e não a velocidade do veículo.In this work, a procedure for experimental identification of hydrodynamic coefficients of unmanned underwater vehicles is presented. At first, the development of a testbed for research on dynamics, control, and navigation of underwater vehicles is presented. This experimental platform includes: 1) a open-frame semi-autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle named LAURS, 2) a multi-sensorial and multi-thruster system for motion control, and 3) software and control architecture for sensor data logging and motion control. In order to derive the LAURS dynamic motion equations, the general formulation of the nonlinear hydrodynamic equations of motion of an underwater vehicle with six degree of freedom is initially presented. From these general coupled equations, simpler formulations with one (unidirectional movement) and three degrees of freedom (planar movement) are derived. The parameter estimation method does not require acceleration measurements and is based on the application of the least squares technique to the integral form of the system dynamic equations. The identification procedure is based on on-board sensor data. First the drag coefficients are obtained from constant velocity tests and afterwards, fixing the drag coefficients in the mathematical model with the obtained values, virtual inertia and coupling coefficients of the vehicle are identified from variable velocity tests. In the tests of variable velocity, sinusoidal force inputs are applied. Values of hydrodynamic coefficients for surge, sway, heave, yaw, and pitch motions are estimated using the proposed identification procedure. Performance of the identified dynamic models is quantitatively compared to the experimentally observed vehicle motion. In the case of constant velocity tests, for the surge and heave motions, comparisons of the hydrodynamic drag coefficient values obtained using the system identification method with data obtained from towing tank tests are presented. Obtained results corroborate for the feasibility of the proposed identification method. Moreover, experimental results obtained from zig-zag maneuvers are presented and the identifiability of coupled dynamic models is discussed. It is possible to conclude that using the proposed method actual hydrodynamic parameters might be estimated. In order to model the hydrodynamic force that acts on the vehicle, in surge motion, with oscillatory movements and with amplitudes that are smaller than or equal to the characteristic length of the LAURS, results of forced oscillation tests in a planar motion mechanism (PMM) are presented. The drag and inertia coefficient values obtained from surge motion tests in the PMM for different Keulegan-Carpenter numbers are presented and discussed. Results illustrates that drag and inertia coefficients, when the vehicle velocity is in the range of 0,1 and 0,8m/s, do not strongly depend on the Reynolds number, however, they are strongly dependent on the Keulegan-Carpenter number. In this context, we can conclude that the oscillation amplitude is the main factor that causes the variation of hydrodynamic coefficients and not the vehicle velocity

Experimental Investigation of the Hydrodynamic Coefficients of a Remotely Operated Vehicle Using a Planar Motion Mechanism

The determination of hydrodynamic coefficients of full scale underwater vehicles using system identification (SI) is an extremely powerful technique. The procedure is based on experimental runs and on the analysis of on-board sensors and thrusters signals. The technique is cost effective and it has high repeatability; however, for open-frame underwater vehicles, it lacks accuracy due to the sensors' noise and the poor modeling of thruster-hull and thruster-thruster interaction effects. In this work, forced oscillation tests were undertaken with a full scale open-frame underwater vehicle. These conducted tests are unique in the sense that there are not many examples in the literature taking advantage of a PMM installation for testing a prototype and; consequently, allowing the comparison between the experimental results and the ones estimated by parameter identification. The Morison's equation inertia and drag coefficients were estimated with two parameter identification methods, that is, the weighted and the ordinary least-squares procedures. It was verified that the in-line force estimated from Morison's equation agrees well with the measured one except in the region around the motion inversion points. On the other hand, the error analysis showed that the ordinary least-squares provided better accuracy and, therefore, was used to evaluate the ratio between inertia and drag forces for a range of Keulegan-Carpenter and Reynolds numbers. It was concluded that, although both experimental and estimation techniques proved to be powerful tools for evaluation of an open-frame underwater vehicle's hydrodynamic coefficients, the research provided a rich amount of reference data for comparison with reduced models as well as for dynamic motion simulation of ROVs. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4004952]FINEP through CTPetro/ANPFINEP through CTPetro/ANPCNPqCNPqFAPESPFAPES

Experimental model identification of open-frame underwater vehicles

Most of the works published on hydrodynamic parameter identification of open-frame underwater vehicles focus their attention almost exclusively on good coherence between simulated and measured responses, giving less importance to the determination of “actual values” for hydrodynamic parameters. To gain insight into hydrodynamic parameter experimental identification of open-frame underwater vehicles, an experimental identification procedure is proposed here to determine parameters of uncoupled and coupled models. The identification procedure includes: (i) a prior estimation of actual values of the forces/torques applied to the vehicle, (ii) identification of drag parameters from constant velocity tests and (iii) identification of inertia and coupling parameters from oscillatory tests; at this stage, the estimated values of drag parameter obtained in item (ii) are used. The procedure proposed here was used to identify the hydrodynamic parameters of LAURS—an unmanned underwater vehicle developed at the University of São Paulo. The thruster–thruster and thruster–hull interactions and the advance velocity of the vehicle are shown to have a strong impact on the efficiency of thrusters appended to open-frame underwater vehicles, especially for high advance velocities. Results of tests with excitation in 1-DOF and 3-DOF are reported and discussed, showing the feasibility of the developed procedure.The authors would like to thank FINEP for the financial support through the CTPETRO/ANP program, the CNPq for scholarship and financial support, FAPESP for scholarship support, the CENPES/ PETROBRAS for the logistic support, and the Ship and Ocean Engineering Center of the Institute for Technological Research (IPT) of São Paul

Modeling and Identification of an Open-frame Underwater Vehicle: The Yaw Motion Dynamics

A semi-autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), named LAURS, is being developed at the Laboratory of Sensors and Actuators at the University of Sao Paulo. The vehicle has been designed to provide inspection and intervention capabilities in specific missions of deep water oil fields. In this work, a method of modeling and identification of yaw motion dynamic system model of an open-frame underwater vehicle is presented. Using an on-board low cost magnetic compass sensor the method is based on the utilization of an uncoupled 1-DOF (degree of freedom) dynamic system equation and the application of the integral method which is the classical least squares algorithm applied to the integral form of the dynamic system equations. Experimental trials with the actual vehicle have been performed in a test tank and diving pool. During these experiments, thrusters responsible for yaw motion are driven by sinusoidal voltage signal profiles. An assessment of the feasibility of the method reveals that estimated dynamic system models are more reliable when considering slow and small sinusoidal voltage signal profiles, i.e. with larger periods and with relatively small amplitude and offset.FINEP through CT-Petro/ANPFINEP through CTPetro/ANPCNPqCNPqFAPESPFAPES

UNDERWATER ROBOTIC VEHICLE FOR SHIP HULL INSPECTION: CONTROL SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Abstract. The inspection of underwater structure thickness has emerged as a