Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) based on Oil-filled Modular Controller

The underwater control system is the “brain” of various types of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), and is the premise and guarantee for the UUVs to complete various expected tasks. The existing control systems of UUV all adopt one-piece dry or oil-filled sealing structure. As a result, it can only use a highly customized integrated embedded system, which not only lacks reliability, but also is difficult to maintain. Aiming to solve the above problems, this study proposes and implements an underwater oil-filled modular controller (OFMC) that combines the compactness of an embedded system and the modularity of a land-based programmable logic controller, and applies it to an observational AUV. The OFMC divides functions and modules according to the control requirements of common UUVs. It selects electronic components and printed circuit boards that can withstand high oil pressure to make module circuits, and uses flexible hoses with internal wires to form pressure compensation mechanisms. The Controller Area Network bus architecture is adopted to realize the communication and interconnection among modules. The test results show that the OFMC can work normally at a water depth of 6000 meters, and the AUV control system constructed by the combination of four OFMCs can well complete the underwater control task of the observational AUV.