[Scientific and Technological Achievements Promotion] Bionic Autonomous Submersible

At present, human beings are facing three major problems: population, resources and environment. With the rapid development of national economy and the increasing population of the world, more and more natural resources are consumed by human beings, and the resources on land are decreasing day by day. However, the ocean and the bottom of the ocean, which account for 71% of the earth's surface area, are extremely rich in biological resources and mineral resources.

The scientific and technological achievement introduced by Xiao Bian today is applied to underwater environment. TA is a bionic autonomous submarine developed by the Institute of Marine Information and Intelligent Equipment of our hospital. Next, please follow Xiaobian to learn about it ~

science and technology research and development]

As one of the undeveloped treasure land and high-tech fields, the ocean has become an important strategic goal of all countries and one of the focuses of fierce international competition in recent years. Many countries are developing marine resources, and many developed countries are listing marine development as a long-term plan of the country.

my country has a blue land area of 3 million square kilometers, which is about 1/3 of my country's land area. There are extremely rich resources in this vast sea area. Understanding and developing the ocean needs the support of various high-tech means. Scientific and technological research and development in related fields is essential for building a maritime power, safeguarding national security and achieving the great goal of sustainable development. As one of the most important means to explore the ocean space, underwater robot technology has the same significance as the launch vehicle technology to explore the outer space. Therefore, the development of underwater vehicles has been concerned by countries all over the world, in which the autonomous underwater vehicle (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, referred to as AUV) is the most widely used.

In order to meet the requirements of the future development of underwater vehicle technology, people are developing a new type of underwater vehicle with a wide range of transfer capabilities and high maneuverability, and are also looking for better propulsion and control systems for traditional underwater vehicles. On the other hand, after hundreds of millions of years of evolution and evolution, aquatic animals have already played their sports ability in the water to the extreme in the survival of the fittest. Among them, mammals such as fish and whales have the characteristics of high speed, flexibility and low noise, and their ability to swim and control posture is unmatched by any underwater vehicle equipped with traditional control and propulsion systems.

 

science and technology innovation]

Underwater bionic technology has been paid more and more attention and has become one of the important research directions of underwater vehicles. It is based on the principle of bionics, through the study of the swimming mechanism of fish, the use of mechanical structure, electronic equipment and functional materials to develop the manipulation and propulsion methods that imitate fish, and apply it to underwater vehicles. Compared with traditional propeller thrusters, the application of fin-like thrusters to underwater vehicles will become a new type of bionic underwater vehicle, which will have the following characteristics:

01 High mobility

When the speed is high, the turning radius of the underwater vehicle using the traditional propeller is larger, and the speed will also be reduced. The use of imitation fin thrusters can better overcome these shortcomings, increase the ability of underwater vehicle to start, accelerate and turn, and improve maneuverability.

02 More optimized fluid performance

The wake produced by the swing of the fish's caudal fin has a propulsion effect, which can control the tail vortex of the fin-like thruster and make it have more perfect hydrodynamic performance. At the same time, studies have shown that fish can effectively reduce their resistance by swimming, and underwater vehicles can also use this to reduce energy consumption.

03 low noise, environmental protection, strong stealth ability

The noise of the imitation fin thruster is much lower than that of the propeller thruster. It is not easy to be found and identified by the other party's sonar. It has no noise hazard to marine life and can be integrated into the marine life population. Moreover, the swimming of fish makes full use of and controls the tail vortex, which is conducive to stealth and penetration, and has important military value.

04 Unification of propulsion system and control system

The traditional underwater vehicle uses the propeller as the propulsion system and the rudder or side pusher as the control system, which has a large structure and complex mechanism. The use of fin-like thrusters makes the "rudder-propeller" function combined into one, streamlines the mechanism, and increases the effective volume and load capacity of the underwater vehicle, which has great practical significance and practical value.

05 High propulsion efficiency and energy saving

The fluid propulsion efficiency of marine propellers does not exceed 40%, while the corresponding efficiency of fish swimming can reach more than 80%. The advanced indicators such as high maneuverability, stability and low noise of fish swimming make submarines far behind.

Bionic autonomous submarine effect diagram

The bionic autonomous submarine developed by the Institute of Marine Information and Intelligent Equipment of our institute imitates the manipulation and propulsion mode of bluefin tuna. It has the characteristics of high speed, high efficiency, long endurance, low resistance, low noise, low maintenance and simple structure. It is suitable for all kinds of underwater target detection and environmental monitoring. It can carry different loads according to the needs of users and provide a wider load space. The side plane structure is especially suitable for carrying surface array hydrophones, with better directivity. Combined with the current design of the 1,000-meter diving structure, it is more suitable for special applications and occasions with high ecological impact requirements.

Technical features

1. Speed sub-index:Sections 3-6, 6-12, 12-24.

2. Bionic tail-swinging drive:Low noise, good concealment, high propulsion efficiency (up to 80%).

3. Bluefin tuna shape:Low damping coefficient.

4. Swing motor:Simplify the transmission structure, improve transmission efficiency and mechanical life.

5. HD fisheye binocular camera:Camera range 270 degrees, 1080P resolution.

6. Sonar detection, fiber array applications:The combination of active detection and passive detection is sensitive and has a wide range.

7. Intelligent adaptive tail fin:According to the needs of the task, adjust the stiffness of the tail fin to optimize the propulsion efficiency.

8. Multiple positioning methods, multi-AUV collaborative positioning:Inertial navigation, Beidou, GPS, etc.

9. Swarm Intelligence:Information sharing, intelligent avoidance, rapid assembly, improve the target discrimination rate.

10. Narrow-beam underwater acoustic communication

11. Underwater charging:Can be fast charging, charging information quickly upload.

　
Bionic autonomous submarine prototype

Technical specifications of the current prototype: body length 2.6 meters, weight 255kg, diving depth 100 meters, speed 6 knots, payload 30kg.

 

application value]

 

Bionic Autonomous Submersible Test

 

Application scenarios in the civil field

■ Fisheries: aquaculture monitoring (temperature, salt, dissolved oxygen, pH, feed), fish detection;

■ Exploration and development: oil, minerals, natural gas, combustible ice and other seabed mineral resources;

■ Emergency rescue: salvage operation, underwater rescue, water ghost frogman drive away;

■ Scientific research: marine biology, seabed and seamount, hydrogeology;

■ Underwater maintenance: hull maintenance, dam inspection, laying and monitoring of submarine pipelines and optical cables;

■ Entertainment services: sightseeing, underwater photography, diving rescue.

 

Application Scenarios in Military Field

■ Training exercise: target boat;

■ Perform tasks: independent reconnaissance, submarine escort and forward sea sweeping;

■ Target detection: strategic deterrence targets;

Underwater communication: communication with mother boat, buoy, ship and other AUVs;

■ Emergency rescue: offshore defense;

■ Environmental monitoring: reconnaissance support;

■ Marine engineering: underwater concealed construction, before out ambush;

■ Military transport: Underwater concealed transport.

 

Marine Information and Intelligent Equipment Research Institute

The Institute of Marine Information and Intelligent equipment is a research institution established by the National Laboratory of Information Science and Technology of Tsinghua University and the team of Professor Ren Yong of the Department of Electronic Engineering as the core team. it is subordinate to the Tianjin High-end equipment Research Institute of Tsinghua University. The research direction is mainly the autonomous underwater vehicle (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, referred to as AUV) and the underwater bee colony formed by multiple AUVs, including the kinematic mechanism of underwater vehicles, information exchange and processing in deep-sea environment, positioning and coordination in deep-sea environment, research and development and manufacturing technology of deep-sea AUV equipment, machine learning theory and its application technology, modeling and optimization scheduling technology of complex production and manufacturing process, etc. The team focuses on bionic AUV development, does not stop at scientific research, aims to realize industrialization, and aims at serving the people with intelligent science and technology. It continuously pushes bionic AUV products to application, relies on market demand and simultaneously stimulates the demand for supply-side reform and innovation, and contributes to leveraging China's marine economy and realizing the great goal of a marine power.

 

Technical docking and business negotiation

Contact person: Xiao Zhidong

Telephone: 17701282622

E-mail: 17701282622@163.com

 

Source | Institute of Marine Information and Intelligent Equipment

Editor | Zhang Shu

The final interpretation right of the above related technologies belongs to the Marine Information and Intelligent Equipment Research Institute.