Miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure

Abstract

The invention discloses a miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure which comprises an underwater robot body, a headlamp, a propeller, a floating block and a depth sensor. The headlamp, the propeller, the floating block and the depth sensor are arranged on the front portion of the underwater robot body. The middle part of the underwater robot body is an acrylic sealed cabin, the front part of the acrylic sealed cabin is an acrylic hemispherical holder, and a camera is fixed at the holder part in the acrylic hemispherical holder; a sealed cabin supporting frame is arranged in the acrylic sealed cabin, and a flight controller, a raspberry Pi, a battery and an electronic speed controller are fixed to the sealed cabin supporting frame; and the rear part of the acrylic sealed cabin is sealed through a sealing cover. A double-layer clamping plate structure and a four-push structure dynamic model are adopted, so that the overall size and mass of the robot are reduced, and the problem that an underwater robot in the prior art is large in structure is solved; and meanwhile, diversified data of vision, depth information, IMU and compass are provided for the underwater robot, so that the underwater autonomous exploration of the robot becomes possible.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of underwater robots, and in particular relates to a miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure. Background Art

[0002] Since the first controllable underwater robot was used to recover a torpedo in 1950, the research and development of underwater robots has never stopped. With the further advancement of technology, the advantages of underwater robots have gradually emerged. Since then, this technology has been adopted by many industries as the main way of their seabed operations. Now, these robots have been used for various tasks, such as drilling for minerals and rock sampling, oil and gas exploration, and seabed measurement.

[0003] However, there are still some challenges in the performance and functions of underwater robots, such as navigation and perception capabilities in complex seabed environments, energy supply for long-term continuous operation, efficient data transmission, etc. In addition, the existing underwater robots on the market also have high barriers to entry, high prices, and large overall structures. The above reasons have greatly restricted the development of the entire underwater robot industry.

[0004] Patent CN 220465762U discloses a propulsion-type underwater robot structure. The robot structure mainly includes an underwater robot body, a handle is fixedly installed on the top of the body, lighting lamps are fixedly installed on both sides of the underwater robot body, a cylinder is fixedly installed in the inner cavity of the underwater robot body, a fixed block is fixedly installed at the bottom of the cylinder, a fixed seat is arranged at the bottom of the fixed block, a positioning plate is fixedly installed at the bottom of the fixed seat, a positioning groove is opened inside the positioning plate, and two positioning blocks are arranged inside the positioning groove. The disadvantage of this propulsion-type underwater robot structure is that it lacks autonomy. Summary of the invention

[0005] The main purpose of the present invention is to overcome the shortcomings and deficiencies of the prior art and to provide a miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure, which solves the problems of low degree of autonomy of existing underwater robots and large size of underwater robots. It can not only complete basic engineering tasks such as underwater target detection, target tracking, odometer, underwater SLAM, etc., but can also be further developed on this basis to complete more diverse underwater autonomous exploration tasks.

[0006] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions: A miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure, comprising an underwater robot body, a headlight arranged at the front of the underwater robot body, a thruster, a buoy and a depth sensor; The middle part of the underwater robot body is an acrylic sealed cabin, the front part of the acrylic sealed cabin is an acrylic hemispherical pan head, and a camera is fixed at the pan head in the acrylic hemispherical pan head; A sealed cabin support frame is provided in the acrylic sealed cabin, and the sealed cabin support frame is fixed with a flight controller, a Raspberry Pi, a battery and an electric speed controller; The rear portion of the acrylic sealed cabin is sealed by a sealing cover.

[0007] As a preferred technical solution, four thrusters are provided, of which two thrusters have horizontal axes and are located at the tail of the underwater robot body, and two thrusters have vertical axes and are located in the middle of the underwater robot body; each thruster is driven by a connected motor, and forward / backward movement is achieved through the synchronous clockwise / counterclockwise rotation of the two motors with horizontal axes, and ascent / diving is achieved through the synchronous clockwise / counterclockwise rotation of the two motors with vertical axes, yaw angle control is achieved through the differential rotation of the two motors with horizontal axes, and roll angle control is achieved through the differential rotation of the two motors with vertical axes, forming a four-thrust four-degree-of-freedom dynamic structure.

[0008] As a preferred technical solution, the flight control is fixed to the upper middle part of the sealed cabin support frame through a card slot; the Raspberry Pi is fixed to the lower middle part of the sealed cabin support frame through a card slot; the battery is fixed to the left rear part of the sealed cabin support frame; the electric speed controller is fixed to the right rear part of the sealed cabin support frame; the battery is connected to the flight control, Raspberry Pi and the electric speed controller through wires respectively; the output pin of the flight control is connected to the thruster through the electric speed controller; the flight control and Raspberry Pi are connected to the camera through wires respectively.

[0009] As a preferred technical solution, a servo is fixed to the front of the sealed cabin support frame, and a servo arm driven to rotate by the servo is also provided. The servo arm is connected to the camera through two spliced ​​hinges, and is configured so that the servo arm, the connection between the hinge, the back of the camera, and the connecting line between the servo rotation axis and the camera rotation axis form a planar four-bar double rocker mechanism to control the rotation of the camera and adjust the pitch angle of the camera.

[0010] As a preferred technical solution, it also includes a waterproof connector arranged at the tail of the underwater robot body, one side of the waterproof connector is connected to the battery in the acrylic sealed cabin after passing through the sealing cover through a group of red and black lines; the other side of the waterproof connector is connected to the load in the sealed cabin, including the flight control, Raspberry Pi, ESC, camera and servo.

[0011] As a preferred technical solution, an "O"-shaped rubber ring is embedded in the hemispherical section of the acrylic hemispherical gimbal, the front of the acrylic sealed cabin is connected to the acrylic hemispherical gimbal through the "O"-shaped rubber ring to achieve sealing, and the rear of the acrylic sealed cabin is sealed through a "T"-shaped rubber ring and a sealing cover. The sealing cover is provided with a plurality of threading holes. After the waterproof wires of the thruster and the depth sensor pass through the above-mentioned threading holes, epoxy resin is used to seal the waterproof seal.

[0012] As a preferred technical solution, at least two headlights are provided and are symmetrically distributed around the center of the camera circle. The headlights are controlled by different PWM signal outputs transmitted by the flight control, and the light intensity of the headlights is modulated by PWM signals with different duty cycles. The larger the duty cycle, the stronger the light.

[0013] As a preferred technical solution, the depth sensor is arranged at the bottom external environment of the underwater robot body. The depth sensor is used to measure the absolute depth of the underwater robot according to the pressure difference in water at different depths, and the feedback data is directly read by the flight control through the I2C protocol, and the data is transmitted to the Raspberry Pi as sensor data for information processing through the flight control.

[0014] As a preferred technical solution, a certain number of floats are arranged on the left front end, left rear end, right front end and right rear end of the underwater robot body, and the center of mass and center of buoyancy of the underwater robot are adjusted to be located in the middle of the underwater robot body through the floats, and the center of mass and center of buoyancy are located on the same vertical line, 4-7 cm apart.

[0015] As a preferred technical solution, an upper and lower layer of plywood is used as the overall supporting structure, and the thruster and the acrylic sealed cabin are fixed in the middle of the upper and lower layers of plywood by fixing parts.

[0016] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following advantages and beneficial effects: (1) The main body of a miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure of the present invention is a double-layer plywood structure, adopts a four-push structure dynamic model, uses fewer supporting structures and thrusters, thereby reducing the overall volume and mass of the robot, and solving the problem of the large structure of the underwater robot in the prior art.

[0017] (2) The miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure of the present invention provides the underwater robot with diverse data such as vision, depth information, IMU, and compass by setting up a depth sensor, a camera, and a flight control, making it possible for the robot to conduct autonomous underwater exploration.

[0018] (3) The present invention realizes adjustment of the pitch angle of the camera by setting a servo, thereby increasing the viewing angle of the robot. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] Figure 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 1 is a schematic diagram of the rear structure of a miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 Schematic diagram of the structure inside the acrylic sealed cabin of an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 4 is a structural schematic diagram of a device for adjusting the pitch angle of a camera according to an embodiment of the present invention; Explanation of the accompanying numbers: 1. Underwater robot body; 2. Headlight; 3. Thruster; 4. Float; 5. Acrylic hemispherical gimbal; 6. Acrylic sealed cabin; 7. Waterproof connector; 8. Depth sensor; 9. Camera; 10. Hinge; 10a, left hinge; 10b, right hinge; 11. Flight control; 12. Raspberry Pi; 13. Servo; 14. Battery; 15. ESC; 16. "T"-shaped rubber ring; 17. Sealing cover; 18. Sealed cabin support frame; 19. Servo arm. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0020] In order to enable those skilled in the art to better understand the present application, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without making creative work are within the scope of protection of the present application.

[0021] Example: like Figure 1-4 As shown, this embodiment provides a miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure, including an underwater robot body 1, a headlight 2 arranged at the front of the underwater robot body 1, a thruster 3, a floating block 4 and a depth sensor 8; The middle part of the underwater robot body 1 is an acrylic sealed cabin 6, the front part of the acrylic sealed cabin 6 is an acrylic hemispherical pan head 5, and a camera 9 is fixed at the pan head in the acrylic hemispherical pan head 5; A sealed cabin support frame 18 is provided in the sealed cabin wrapped by the acrylic sealed cabin ring 6, and the sealed cabin support frame 18 is fixed with the flight control 11, the Raspberry Pi 12, the battery 14 and the electric speed controller 15; The rear portion of the acrylic sealing chamber ring 6 is sealed by a sealing cover 17 .

[0022] In a preferred embodiment, the acrylic sealing chamber ring 6 is a hollow cylinder.

[0023] In a preferred embodiment, the miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure is provided with four thrusters 3, wherein two thrusters 3 have horizontal axes and are located at the tail of the robot, and two thrusters 3 have vertical axes and are located in the middle of the robot; each thruster 3 is driven by a connected motor, and when the robot is controlled to float up or dive down, the two vertical rotating thrusters 3 rotate synchronously clockwise or counterclockwise; when the robot is controlled to roll in the water, the two vertical rotating thrusters 3 rotate differentially; when the robot is controlled to move forward or backward, the two horizontal rotating thrusters 3 rotate synchronously clockwise or counterclockwise; when the robot is controlled to rotate left or right, the two horizontal rotating thrusters 3 rotate differentially, forming a four-push four-degree-of-freedom dynamic structure.

[0024] In a preferred embodiment, a servo 13 is fixed to the front of the sealed cabin support frame 18, and a servo arm 19 driven to rotate by the servo 13 is also provided. The servo arm 19 is connected to the camera 9 through two spliced ​​hinges 10, and is configured as follows: the servo 13 rotates by a control signal provided by the flight control 11, rotates a certain angle, and drives the servo arm 19 to swing. The tail of the servo arm 19 is connected to one end of the left hinge 10a, the other end of the left hinge 10a is connected to the right hinge 10b, and the other end of the right hinge 10b is connected to a part for fixing the camera 9. The servo arm 19 is regarded as an a rod, the component between the rotating shaft of the left hinge 10a and the rotating shaft of the right hinge 10b is regarded as a b rod, the component between the rotating shaft of the right hinge 10b and the rotating centerline axis of the camera 9 is regarded as a c rod, and the component between the camera rotation axis and the rotating shaft of the servo 13 is regarded as a d rod. The mechanism is a planar four-bar double rocker mechanism to control the rotation of the camera 9 and adjust the pitch angle of the camera 9.

[0025] In a preferred embodiment, the control signal provided by the Raspberry Pi 12 can be used to control the rotation of the servo 13 .

[0026] In a preferred embodiment, the flight control 11 is fixed on the upper middle part of the sealed cabin support frame 18; the Raspberry Pi 12 is fixed on the lower middle part of the sealed cabin support frame 18; the battery 14 is fixed on the left rear part of the sealed cabin support frame 18; the electric speed controller 15 is fixed on the right rear part of the sealed cabin support frame 18; the flight control 11 and the Raspberry Pi 12 are both fixed on the sealed cabin support frame 18 through card slots; the battery 14 is respectively connected to the flight control 11, the Raspberry Pi 12 and the electric speed controller 15 through wires; the output pin of the flight control 11 is connected to the motor of the thruster 3 through the electric speed controller 15; the Raspberry Pi 12 is connected to the camera 9 through a wire to control the opening and closing of the camera 9.

[0027] In a preferred embodiment, it also includes a waterproof connector 7 arranged at the tail of the underwater robot body 1, one side of the waterproof connector 7 is connected to the battery 14 in the acrylic sealed cabin 6 after passing through the sealing cover 17 through a group of red and black lines; the other side of the waterproof connector 7 is connected to the load in the sealed cabin, including the flight control 11, the Raspberry Pi 12, the ESC 15, the camera 9 and the servo 13.

[0028] In a preferred embodiment, at least two headlights 2 are provided and are symmetrically distributed within the circumference of the camera 9. The headlights 2 are controlled by different PWM signal outputs transmitted by the flight control 11, and the light intensity of the headlights is modulated by PWM signals with different duty cycles. The larger the duty cycle, the stronger the light.

[0029] In a preferred embodiment, the depth sensor 8 is arranged at the bottom external environment of the underwater robot body 1. The depth sensor 8 is used to measure the absolute depth of the underwater robot according to the pressure difference in water at different depths, and the feedback data is directly read by the flight control 11 through the I2C protocol, and the data is transmitted to the Raspberry Pi 12 through the flight control 11 as sensor data for information processing.

[0030] In a preferred embodiment, an "O"-shaped rubber ring is embedded in the hemispherical section of the acrylic hemispherical head 5, and the front of the acrylic sealed cabin 6 is connected to the acrylic hemispherical head 5 through the "O"-shaped rubber ring to achieve sealing, and the rear of the acrylic sealed cabin 6 is sealed through a "T"-shaped rubber ring 16 and a sealing cover 17. The sealing cover 17 is provided with a plurality of threading holes. After the waterproof wires of the thruster 3 and the depth sensor 8 pass through the above-mentioned threading holes, the sealing cover 17 and the big end of the "T"-shaped rubber ring 16 are clamped by epoxy resin at the same time, and the small end is sealed and inserted into the acrylic sealed cabin 6 to achieve waterproof sealing of the underwater environment.

[0031] In a preferred embodiment, two layers of plywood are used as the overall supporting structure, and the thruster 3 and the acrylic sealed cabin 6 are fixed in the middle of the two layers of plywood by fixing parts.

[0032] In a preferred embodiment, the flight control 11 in the sealed cabin is burned with Ardusub firmware, and the Raspberry Pi 12 is burned with a developer-defined program. When the underwater robot is working, the battery 14 fixed on the left side of the rear of the sealed cabin support frame 18 supplies power to the entire robot, and passes through the waterproof connector 7 to reach the flight control 11, Raspberry Pi 12, ESC 15, and servo 13. The flight control 11 with the burned firmware is responsible for controlling the posture balance of the underwater robot. The command output by the flight control 11 is transmitted to the ESC 15 in the form of a PWM signal, and then the ESC 15 modulates the PWM signal to become a three-phase AC circuit and transmits it to the thruster 3. The Raspberry Pi 12 is similar to a small CPU and is responsible for more advanced operations and processing, such as autonomous obstacle avoidance and trajectory planning for the underwater robot, and sends the underlying control command to the flight control 11 to realize the autonomous exploration of the underwater robot.

[0033] In a preferred embodiment, a certain number of floats 4 are arranged at the left front end, left rear end, right front end and right rear end of the underwater robot body 1, and the center of mass and center of buoyancy of the underwater robot are adjusted to be located in the middle of the underwater robot body 1 through the floats 4, and the center of mass and center of buoyancy are located on the same vertical line, 4-7 cm apart, preferably 5 cm apart.

[0034] The above embodiments are preferred implementation modes of the present invention, but the implementation modes of the present invention are not limited to the above embodiments. Any other changes, modifications, substitutions, combinations, and simplifications that do not deviate from the spirit and principles of the present invention should be equivalent replacement methods and are included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure, characterized in that: It comprises an underwater robot body (1), a headlight (2) arranged at the front of the underwater robot body (1), a thruster (3), a floating block (4) and a depth sensor (8); The middle part of the underwater robot body (1) is an acrylic sealed cabin (6), the front part of the acrylic sealed cabin (6) is an acrylic hemispherical pan / tilt (5), and a camera (9) is fixed at the pan / tilt inside the acrylic hemispherical pan / tilt (5); A sealed cabin support frame (18) is arranged in the acrylic sealed cabin (6), and a flight control (11), a Raspberry Pi (12), a battery (14) and an electric speed controller (15) are fixed to the sealed cabin support frame (18); The rear portion of the acrylic sealed cabin (6) is sealed by a sealing cover (17).

2. The miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure according to claim 1 is characterized in that: Four thrusters (3) are provided, wherein two thrusters (3) have horizontal axes and are located at the tail of the underwater robot body (1), and two thrusters (3) have vertical axes and are located in the middle of the underwater robot body (1); each thruster (3) is driven by a connected motor, and the two motors with horizontal axes synchronously rotate clockwise / counterclockwise to achieve forward / reverse movement, and the two motors with vertical axes synchronously rotate clockwise / counterclockwise to achieve floating / diving, and the two motors with horizontal axes differentially rotate to achieve yaw angle control, and the two motors with vertical axes differentially rotate to achieve roll angle control, thereby forming a four-thrust four-degree-of-freedom dynamic structure.

3. The miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The flight control (11) is fixed to the upper middle part of the sealed cabin support frame (18) through a card slot; the Raspberry Pi (12) is fixed to the lower middle part of the sealed cabin support frame (18) through a card slot; the battery (14) is fixed to the left rear part of the sealed cabin support frame (18); the electric speed controller (15) is fixed to the right rear part of the sealed cabin support frame (18); the battery (14) is connected to the flight control (11), the Raspberry Pi (12) and the electric speed controller (15) through wires respectively; the output pin of the flight control (11) is connected to the thruster (3) through the electric speed controller (15); the flight control (11) and the Raspberry Pi (12) are connected to the camera (9) through wires respectively.

4. The miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure according to claim 1 is characterized in that: A steering gear (13) is fixed to the front of the sealed cabin support frame (18), and a steering gear arm (19) driven to rotate by the steering gear (13) is also provided. The steering gear arm (19) is connected to the camera (9) through two spliced ​​hinges (10), and is configured so that the steering gear arm (19), the connection point of the hinge (10), the back of the camera (9), and the connection line between the rotation axis of the steering gear (13) and the rotation axis of the camera (9) form a planar four-bar double rocker mechanism to control the rotation of the camera (9) and adjust the pitch angle of the camera (9).

5. The miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The invention also comprises a waterproof connector (7) arranged at the tail of the underwater robot body (1); one side of the waterproof connector (7) is connected to a battery (14) in an acrylic sealed cabin (6) through a group of red and black wires passing through a sealing cover (17); the other side of the waterproof connector (7) is connected to a load in the sealed cabin, including a flight control (11), a Raspberry Pi (12), an electric speed controller (15), a camera (9) and a steering gear (13).

6. The miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: An "O"-shaped rubber ring is embedded in the hemispherical section of the acrylic hemispherical pan / tilt head (5); the front of the acrylic sealed cabin (6) is connected to the acrylic hemispherical pan / tilt head (5) through the "O"-shaped rubber ring to achieve sealing; the rear of the acrylic sealed cabin (6) is sealed through a "T"-shaped rubber ring (16) and a sealing cover (17); a plurality of threading holes are provided on the sealing cover (17); after the waterproof wires of the propeller (3) and the depth sensor (8) pass through the threading holes, epoxy resin is used to seal the waterproof wires.

7. The miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: At least two headlamps (2) are provided and are symmetrically distributed within the circumference of the camera (9). The headlamps (2) are controlled by different PWM signal outputs transmitted by the flight control (11). The light intensity of the headlamps is modulated by PWM signals with different duty cycles. The larger the duty cycle, the stronger the light.

8. The miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The depth sensor (8) is arranged at the bottom external environment of the underwater robot body (1), and is used to measure the absolute depth of the underwater robot according to the pressure difference in water at different depths, and to directly read the data fed back by the flight control (11) through the I2C protocol, and then transmit the data to the Raspberry Pi (12) as sensor data for information processing through the flight control (11).

9. The miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: A certain number of floating blocks (4) are arranged at the left front end, the left rear end, the right front end and the right rear end of the underwater robot body (1), and the center of mass and the center of buoyancy of the underwater robot are adjusted to be located in the middle of the underwater robot body (1) by means of the floating blocks (4), and the center of mass and the center of buoyancy are located on the same vertical line and are 4-7 cm apart.

10. The miniaturized underwater autonomous robot structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: An upper and lower layer of clamping plates are used as an overall supporting structure, and a propeller (3) and an acrylic sealed cabin (6) are fixed in the middle of the upper and lower layers of clamping plates by means of fixing parts.

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