Title: Layered mission control architecture and strategy for crawling underwater cleaning robot

Authors: Houssam Albitar; Kinan Dandan; Anani Ananiev; Ivan Kalaykov

Addresses: Center for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS), School of Science and Technology, Örebro University, 70182 Örebro, Sweden ' Center for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS), School of Science and Technology, Örebro University, 70182 Örebro, Sweden ' Center for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS), School of Science and Technology, Örebro University, 70182 Örebro, Sweden ' Center for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS), School of Science and Technology, Örebro University, 70182 Örebro, Sweden

Abstract: This paper presents the mechanical design and the control system architecture of an underwater robot, developed for bio-fouling cleaning surfaces. The robotic system presented here has been designed to improve the productivity, reduce the environmental impacts, and exclude the hazards for the operators. The control system has a layered structure which is distributed into two blocks: cleaning robot, and on-board base station connected with power and control cables and a water hose, to facilitate different modes of operations and to increase the system reliability. A low level control has been implemented on the robotic platform. The onboard station designed to be in different layers of the control system: manual, semiautonomous and autonomous modes. A scaled prototype has been implemented and tested to prove the concept, and to make certain that the mechanical design and the chosen control system are perfectly suited to the main functions of the robotic system.

Keywords: underwater robots; layered control; crawling robots; bio-fouling cleaning; cleaning robots; mechanical design; robot design; robot control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMA.2015.075957

International Journal of Mechatronics and Automation, 2015 Vol.5 No.2/3, pp.114 - 124

Received: 02 May 2015
Accepted: 24 Nov 2015
Published online: 18 Apr 2016 *

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