Design and Experiment of a Fan-wing Underwater Vehicle

By referring to fan-wing aircraft, a new kind of underwater vehicle, Fan-wing Underwater Vehicle (FUV), is proposed. This kind of vehicle is designed to achieve 5 degrees of freedom movement with only two moving parts. According to the structure of fan-wing aircraft, a configuration of FUV is put forward. The feasibility of the basic movement of this configuration is proved by mathematical analysis. After that, a mechanical structure of this configuration is designed, and a control system is built. By remote control and posture feedback, the control system can make the FUV achieve 5 degrees of freedom movement and straight cruise. Finally, a real FUV is manufactured. The real FUV is tested underwater, and the performance can match the propose of design. The cruise velocity of this FUV is about 1.2 knots, and the minimal turning radius is about 0.45 m, which is only 85% the total length of the FUV. In view of the performance of this FUV, some novel applications are discussed. This kind of FUVs can be used as ultra-small underwater vehicles, multi-habitat vehicles or modeless intelligent underwater vehicles.