Crawler-type amphibious unmanned vehicle

Abstract

The utility model provides a crawler-type amphibious unmanned vehicle. The floating and crawling dual-mode motion of the aircraft can be reversibly switched, so that the aircraft can work in a deep water area, a shallow water area and a beach. The crawler-type amphibious unmanned vehicle comprises an amphibious carrying platform; the amphibious carrying platform comprises a crawler-type chassis, a platform structure body arranged above the crawler-type chassis, a main propeller arranged at the tail of the platform structure body, a buoyancy adjusting device arranged in the platform structure body and a combined navigation device arranged on the platform structure body. A communication unit and a positioning unit.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The utility model relates to a kind of vehicles, specifically to a kind of amphibious unmanned vehicle, belong to underwater unmanned equipment technical field. BACKGROUND

[0002] The underwater unmanned vehicle that is more mature at home and abroad at present is mainly torpedo type and open frame type. Among them, torpedo type becomes mainstream with small resistance, fast speed, long cruising range; Open frame type is usually equipped with more propellers, good maneuverability, strong control ability, can be seated, and is the ideal choice for underwater salvage search.

[0003] The advantages of the above two mainstream forms of underwater unmanned vehicles are obvious, but the disadvantages are also very prominent. Torpedo type underwater unmanned vehicle can navigate on water surface and in water, but cannot crawl on the bottom, has poor current resistance in shallow water area operation, has high risk of grounding, bottom touching, etc., thus has minimum use water depth limit and operation blind area; Open frame type underwater unmanned vehicle has large resistance, low propulsion efficiency, short cruising range, and is not suitable for long distance navigation, although it can be seated, but cannot travel along the bottom. Therefore, for the occasion that needs long distance navigation and then bottom crawling operation in shallow water area, the above two mature forms of underwater unmanned vehicles all have defects that cannot be overcome.

[0004] In recent years, many research institutes at home and abroad actively study underwater unmanned vehicles that can swim and crawl in shallow water area, and have made some achievements, but are basically in the initial exploration stage. Chinese patent application CN117124785A discloses a amphibious robot of wheel-leg integrated driving. The robot has compact structure, can adapt to more complex terrain for crawling through multi-legged mode, but the robot has high gravity center when crawling in multi-legged mode, poor current resistance, prone to rollover when encountering sea current and surge, in addition, the foot type has small ground contact area, large ground pressure, can only travel on hard bottom, and cannot adapt to silt bottom and fine sand bottom which are most widely in natural lakes and seas. Chinese patent application CN116923011A discloses a amphibious robot of multi-motion mode based on wheel-propeller-leg integration, which can change into different coordinate positions to form different multi-motion modes according to different actual environment requirements. But the robot has many motion mechanism joints, complex structure, and complex joints are prone to failure due to foreign matter in natural environment, and has low reliability. In addition, the robot also has small ground contact area, large ground pressure, can only travel on hard bottom, and cannot adapt to silt bottom and fine sand bottom which are most widely in natural lakes and seas.

[0005] In summary, the current mature form of underwater unmanned vehicle mainly works in deep water area, and has defects that cannot be overcome in shallow water area. Based on this, many domestic and foreign research institutes have carried out a lot of beneficial exploration for underwater unmanned vehicles working in shallow water area, but mostly focus on the innovation of movement mechanism, and the principle prototype made can only work in laboratory environment and is mainly used for movement mechanism analysis, cannot overcome the influence of surge and sea current in real lake and sea environment, does not consider the influence of the complexity of lake and sea bottom, and there is still a big gap from the engineering application in real environment. Practical new type content

[0006] Therefore, the utility model provides a caterpillar amphibious unmanned vehicle; the vehicle floats, crawls dual mode motion reversible switching, so that it can work in deep water area, shallow water area and beach.

[0007] The technical scheme of the utility model is as follows: a caterpillar amphibious unmanned vehicle, comprising: an amphibious carrying platform; the amphibious carrying platform comprises: a caterpillar chassis, a platform structure main body arranged above the caterpillar chassis, a main propeller arranged at the tail of the platform structure main body, a buoyancy adjusting device arranged in the platform structure main body, and a combined navigation device, a communication unit and a positioning unit arranged on the platform structure main body.

[0008] As a preferred mode of the utility model: the main propeller is installed on the rudder rod of the steering gear mechanism and can be driven by the steering gear mechanism to perform pitching motion.

[0009] As a preferred mode of the utility model: the main propeller is installed on the rudder rod of the steering gear mechanism and can be driven by the steering gear mechanism to perform pitching motion.

[0010] As a preferred mode of the utility model: the main propeller is installed on the rudder rod of the steering gear mechanism and can be driven by the steering gear mechanism to perform pitching motion.

[0011] As a preferred mode of the utility model: the main propeller is installed on the rudder rod of the steering gear mechanism and can be driven by the steering gear mechanism to perform pitching motion.

[0012] The detection and identification unit comprises: a sonar and an optical camera arranged on the bow of the platform structure main body through a holder, and a magnetic detector arranged on the front side of the bow of the platform structure main body.

[0013] The holder can be adjusted in pitch and rotated around its own axis.

[0014] As a preferred mode of the utility model: the task load still includes: mechanical arm and / or disposal load;The mechanical arm and / or disposal load are arranged in the amphibious carrying platform back in modular add-on mode;The mechanical arm is used for grabbing and capturing underwater set target, and the disposal load is used for executing set disposal task to underwater target.

[0015] As a preferred mode of the utility model: the platform structure main part is internally provided with watertight main electronic cabin, and non-watertight equipment is arranged in the watertight main electronic cabin, and the equipment in the main electronic cabin is connected through non-watertight cable, and the main electronic cabin and external watertight equipment are connected through watertight cable.

[0016] As a preferred mode of the utility model: the tracked chassis adopts two separately driven tracks and is respectively located at the transverse two sides of the bottom of the amphibious carrying platform;The track outer side is provided with a protective plate.

[0017] As a preferred mode of the utility model: the communication unit includes underwater acoustic communication device and radio communication device, the underwater acoustic communication device is used for external communication when the vehicle is in water, and the radio communication device is used for external communication when the vehicle is on water surface and land.

[0018] As a preferred mode of the utility model: the platform structure main part is further provided with vertical thrust and / or side thrust as auxiliary propeller, improving the maneuverability of the vehicle.

[0019] Beneficial effects:

[0020] (1) the amphibious carrying platform in the utility model adopts tracked chassis plus main propeller mode to realize floating, crawling dual-mode motion;In deep water area, the vehicle is configured into zero buoyancy through buoyancy adjusting device, and the vehicle is navigated in water by using the main propeller arranged at the tail;In shallow water area, the vehicle is configured into negative buoyancy through buoyancy adjusting device, and the vehicle is seated on the bottom, and realizes bottom crawling by using the track arranged at the bottom;Therefore, the vehicle floating, crawling dual-mode motion can be reversely switched, so that it can work in deep water area, shallow water area and shore.

[0021] (2) in the utility model, four independent water tanks are arranged in the buoyancy adjusting device, each water tank can be separately drained, and by injecting different water amount into the four water tanks, the vehicle can have different pitch angle and roll angle;Therefore, during the bottom crawling process of the vehicle, when the bottom slope and inclination are large, by adjusting the water amount of the four water tanks, the obstacle crossing performance and crawling stability of the vehicle can be improved;When the vehicle is navigated in water, by adjusting the water amount of the front and rear water tanks, the vehicle can have certain pitch angle, so that the floating and diving during navigation can be realized.

[0022] (3) The utility model discloses, main propeller is arranged on the steering gear mechanism, thereby main propeller can adjust the pitch angle, when the steering gear angle of attack is 0, main propeller only produces the thrust of horizontal direction, and the vehicle advances along the horizontal direction, when the steering gear angle of attack is not 0 (the steering rod has the pitch angle), the thrust that main propeller produces has the component of horizontal direction and the component of vertical direction, not only can drive the vehicle to advance or retreat, but also can float or dive, thereby, through the steering angle of control steering gear, can realize the floating and diving in the navigation process.

[0023] (4) The utility model discloses, tracked chassis adopts two single drive caterpillar bands, and is located amphibious unmanned vehicle bottom's transverse both sides respectively, through the differential of two caterpillar bands, can realize the turning in place and various different size turning radius in the crawling process.

[0024] (5) The utility model discloses, still carries the detection and identification unit as task load, can carry out environmental reconnaissance, explosive detection and removal, and executes search and rescue task, simultaneously, the platform of the gimbal as the carrying of sonar and optical camera, can compensate the attitude disturbance that the bottom quality is uneven when the vehicle is pasted bottom crawling in real time on one hand, improves the attitude stability of detection load and then improves the detection distance, on the other hand, can rotate left and right, and the horizontal visual angle of detection load is widened and then the detection width is improved.

[0025] (6) The utility model discloses, mechanical arm and disposal load are arranged in amphibious carrying platform back as task load with modularization additional mode, and mechanical arm can carry out the capture of underwater set target, and disposal load can execute the disposal task of underwater target. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0026] Figure 1 It is the composition block diagram of amphibious unmanned vehicle of the utility model;

[0027] Figure 2 It is the side view of amphibious unmanned vehicle of the utility model;

[0028] Figure 3 It is the plan view of amphibious unmanned vehicle of the utility model;

[0029] Figure 4 It is the state schematic view of main propeller when the steering gear angle of attack of amphibious unmanned vehicle of the utility model is 0;

[0030] Figure 5 It is the state schematic view of main propeller when the steering gear angle of attack of amphibious unmanned vehicle of the utility model is negative;

[0031] Figure 6 It is the state schematic view of main propeller when the steering gear angle of attack of amphibious unmanned vehicle of the utility model is positive.

[0032] Wherein: 1-main propeller, 2-positioning unit, 3-track chassis, 4-communication unit, 5-gimbal, 6-sonar and optical camera, 7-magnetic detector, 8-buoyancy adjustment device, 9-main electronic cabin, 10-power distributor, 11-rudder mechanism, 12-fender. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0033] The utility model will be further explained in detail in combination with the drawings and examples.

[0034] In order to overcome the defect that the existing mature form underwater unmanned vehicle cannot work in shallow water area, and solve the problem that the underwater unmanned vehicle that can swim and crawl researched by many research institutes in recent years cannot be applied in engineering, the embodiment provides a track amphibious unmanned vehicle, the vehicle float, swim, crawl dual-mode motion reversible switching, so that it can work in deep water area, also can work in shallow water area, also can work in beach, and the vehicle is equipped with sonar, optical camera and magnetic detector and other loads, can carry out environmental exploration, explosive detection and removal, and execute search and rescue tasks.

[0035] As shown in Figure 1 The amphibious unmanned vehicle comprises an amphibious carrying platform and a task load, wherein the amphibious carrying platform comprises a platform structure body, an energy and propulsion unit, a navigation communication and control unit and a steering and balancing unit, and the task load comprises a detection and identification unit, a mechanical arm and a disposal load.

[0036] As shown in Figure 2 The platform structure body comprises a cabin body arranged above the track chassis 3, the cabin body is composed of a structural frame, a float arranged on the structural frame and a skin wrapped outside the structural frame, the energy and propulsion unit, the navigation communication and control unit and the steering and balancing unit are arranged on the structural frame of the cabin body, and the detection and identification unit is arranged at the top end of the bow of the amphibious carrying platform.

[0037] As shown in Figure 3 The cabin body is internally provided with a watertight main electronic cabin 9, non-watertight equipment is arranged in the watertight main electronic cabin 9, the equipment in the main electronic cabin 9 is connected through non-watertight cable, and the main electronic cabin 9 and the external watertight equipment are connected through watertight cable.

[0038] The energy and propulsion unit comprises: a secondary lithium battery, a power distributor 10, a main propeller 1 and a tracked chassis 3; wherein the secondary lithium battery provides energy for the operation of the vehicle, and the power distributor 10 controls the power-on and power-off of the tracked chassis 3 and the main propeller 1. The main propeller 1 provides thrust for the vehicle to sail, and the tracked chassis provides thrust for the vehicle to crawl. The main propeller 1 is arranged on both sides of the tail of the amphibious carrier platform, forming a double-main-propeller structure; thus, the amphibious carrier platform realizes dual-mode motion of floating and crawling by adopting the tracked chassis 3 and double-main-propeller mode. In deep water, the vehicle is configured to have zero buoyancy by operating the buoyancy adjusting device 8 in the steering and balancing unit, and the vehicle sails in water by using the double main propellers 1 arranged on both sides of the tail; in shallow water, the vehicle is configured to have negative buoyancy by operating the buoyancy adjusting device 8 in the steering and balancing unit, so that the vehicle sits on the bottom, and crawls along the bottom by using the tracks arranged on both sides of the bottom; according to different substrates, the vehicle is configured to have different negative buoyancies, so that it has wide substrate adaptability.

[0039] As an example, the tracked chassis 3 adopts two separately driven tracks, which are arranged on the transverse sides of the bottom of the amphibious vehicle; by differential of the two tracks, the vehicle can realize in-place turning and various turning radii of different sizes during crawling. The tracks adopt deep-tooth rubber tracks, which are more suitable for underwater soft bottom environment, and the tracks are provided with guards 12 on both sides, which can effectively prevent the entanglement of water grass, abandoned fishing nets, abandoned ropes and other sundries.

[0040] The navigation, communication and control unit comprises: a central control unit, a combined navigation device, a communication unit 4 and a positioning unit 2; wherein the central control unit is the control core of the vehicle, responsible for task planning and navigation control of the vehicle; the combined navigation device is responsible for navigation and positioning of the vehicle underwater; the communication unit 4 comprises a water acoustic communication device and a radio communication device, the water acoustic communication device is responsible for external communication of the vehicle in water, and the radio communication device is responsible for external communication of the vehicle on the water surface and on land. The positioning unit 2 is responsible for navigation and positioning of the vehicle on the water surface and on land.

[0041] The steering and balancing unit comprises: a rudder mechanism 11 and a buoyancy adjusting device 8. In this example, the two main propellers 1 are arranged on the rudder mechanism 11, the rudder mechanism 11 comprises a rudder and a rudder bar arranged at the tail of the vehicle, the rudder drives the rudder bar to rotate (pitching rotation), and the two main propellers 1 are installed on the rudder bar; thus, the two main propellers 1 can be adjusted in pitch. When the rudder angle of the rudder is 0, the main propeller 1 only generates horizontal thrust, and the vehicle moves forward along the horizontal direction, as shown in Figure 4 When the rudder angle of the rudder is not 0 (the rudder bar has a pitch angle), the thrust generated by the main propeller 1 has both horizontal and vertical components, which can not only drive the vehicle to move forward or backward, but also can make the vehicle float or dive, as shown inFigure 5 The rudder angle of the rudder mechanism 11 is negative, and the main propeller 1 is deflected downward under the action of the rudder mechanism 11. Figure 6 The rudder angle of the rudder mechanism 11 is positive, and the main propeller 1 is deflected upward under the action of the rudder mechanism 11. Thus, by the differential speed of the two main propellers 1, the turning of the vehicle can be realized, and by controlling the rudder angle of the rudder mechanism, the ascent and descent during navigation can be realized.

[0042] The buoyancy adjusting device includes a water tank 8, a buoyancy adjusting controller, and a liquid level sensing unit. The buoyancy adjusting controller receives the water filling and draining instructions from the central control unit and the water tank liquid level data collected by the liquid level sensing unit, and performs water filling and draining on the water tank 8 according to the instructions, and feeds back the liquid level data to the central control unit.

[0043] As an example, four independent water tanks 8 are provided, which are distributed in a rectangular shape on the platform structure main body, i.e., one water tank 8 is arranged on each of the front and rear sides of the two lateral sides; a liquid level sensing unit for collecting water tank liquid level data is arranged in each water tank 8, and the four liquid level sensing units are electrically connected with the buoyancy adjusting controller, which receives the instructions from the central control unit and controls each water tank 8 independently. That is, each water tank 8 can be independently water filled and drained, and by water filling different amounts of water in the four water tanks 8, the vehicle can have different longitudinal inclination angles and lateral roll angles. For example, when the water amount in the left water tank is larger, the vehicle will tilt to the left, and when the water amount in the front water tank is larger, the vehicle will tilt forward, and vice versa. During the bottom-clinging crawling process of the vehicle, when the bottom slope and inclination angle are large, by adjusting the water amounts in the four water tanks 8, the obstacle crossing performance and crawling stability of the vehicle can be improved. When the vehicle is navigating in water, by adjusting the water amounts in the front and rear water tanks, the vehicle can have a certain longitudinal inclination angle, which can cooperate with the double main propellers 1 to realize ascent and descent during navigation.

[0044] As an example, a vertical thrust and / or a side thrust can also be added as an auxiliary propeller to further improve the maneuverability and power control ability of the vehicle.

[0045] The detection and identification unit in the task load comprises a gimbal 5, a sonar and optical camera 6, a magnetic detector 7, an identification processor, etc.The sonar and optical camera 6 are arranged on the top surface of the bow of the amphibious carrier platform through the gimbal 5, and the magnetic detector 7 is arranged on the front side of the bow of the amphibious carrier platform; the gimbal 5 serves as a mounting platform of the sonar and optical camera 6, and can compensate for the attitude disturbance caused by the uneven bottom when the vehicle crawls on the bottom, improve the attitude stability of the detection load, and further improve the detection distance; meanwhile, the gimbal 5 can rotate left and right (i.e., rotate around its own axis) and adjust the pitch, thereby widening the horizontal view angle of the detection load and improving the detection width.The sonar, optical camera and magnetic detector 7, etc., as the task load of the vehicle, are not only the core of the vehicle to perform the tasks of environmental exploration and specific target search, etc., but also help the vehicle to find the surrounding obstacles during the navigation and crawling, and then avoid the obstacles.The identification processor runs a set target identification algorithm (a conventional target identification algorithm) to identify, classify and confirm the detected target.

[0046] The mechanical arm and the disposal load in the task load are arranged on the back of the amphibious carrier platform in a modularized and added manner; the mechanical arm can grasp and capture the specific underwater target, and the disposal load can perform specific disposal tasks on the underwater target.A typical application is underwater blasting, the disposal load is an underwater bomb, the underwater bomb is fixed on the object to be blasted by the mechanical arm, then the vehicle is withdrawn to a safe distance, and finally the bomb is exploded by a timing or remote control method to blow up the object to be blasted.

[0047] Although the utility model has been described in detail above with general description and specific embodiments, some modifications or improvements can be made on the basis of the utility model, which is obvious to those skilled in the art.Thus, these modifications or improvements made on the basis of not deviating from the spirit of the utility model all belong to the scope of protection required by the utility model.

Claims

1. A tracked amphibious unmanned surface vehicle, characterized by, The amphibious carrier platform comprises: An amphibious carrier platform comprises a tracked chassis (3), a platform structure body arranged above the tracked chassis (3), a main propeller (1) arranged at the tail of the platform structure body, a buoyancy adjusting device (8) arranged inside the platform structure body, and a combined navigation device, a communication unit (4) and a positioning unit (2) arranged on the platform structure body. The main propeller (1) is installed on the rudder rod of the steering mechanism (11) and can perform pitching motion under the driving of the steering mechanism (11).

2. The tracked amphibious unmanned watercraft of claim 1, wherein, The main propeller (1) is arranged on the transverse sides of the tail of the platform structure body, forming a double main propeller structure.

3. The tracked amphibious unmanned watercraft of claim 1 or 2, wherein, The buoyancy adjusting device (8) comprises four independent water tanks (8) arranged in a rectangular distribution on the platform structure body; a liquid level sensing unit for collecting water tank liquid level data is arranged in each water tank (8); each water tank (8) can be independently drained.

4. The tracked amphibious unmanned watercraft of claim 1, wherein, It also includes a task load, which includes a detection and identification unit arranged on the platform structure body; 5. The tracked amphibious unmanned watercraft of claim 1 or 2 or 4, wherein, The detection and identification unit comprises a sonar and an optical camera (6) arranged at the bow of the platform structure body through a gimbal (5), and a magnetic detector (7) arranged at the front side of the bow of the platform structure body; The gimbal (5) can be adjusted in pitch and rotated around its own axis. The task load further comprises a mechanical arm and / or a disposal load; the mechanical arm and / or the disposal load are arranged on the back of the amphibious carrier platform in a modular and added manner; the mechanical arm is used for grabbing and capturing underwater target objects, and the disposal load is used for performing disposal tasks on underwater target objects.

6. The tracked amphibious unmanned watercraft of claim 5, wherein, A watertight main electronic cabin (9) is arranged inside the platform structure body, non-watertight equipment is arranged in the watertight main electronic cabin (9), the equipment in the main electronic cabin (9) is connected by non-watertight cables, and the main electronic cabin (9) and the external watertight equipment are connected by watertight cables.

7. The tracked amphibious unmanned watercraft of claim 1 or 2 or 4, wherein, The tracked chassis (3) adopts two separately driven tracks, which are respectively arranged on the transverse sides of the bottom of the amphibious carrier platform; a protective plate (12) is arranged outside the track.

8. The tracked amphibious unmanned watercraft of claim 1 or 2 or 4, wherein, The communication unit (4) comprises a water acoustic communication device and a radio communication device, the water acoustic communication device is used for external communication when the vehicle is in water, and the radio communication device is used for external communication when the vehicle is on the water surface and on land.

9. The tracked amphibious unmanned watercraft of claim 1 or 2 or 4, wherein, A vertical and / or lateral thrust is also arranged on the platform structure body as an auxiliary propeller to improve the maneuverability of the vehicle.

10. The tracked amphibious unmanned watercraft of claim 1 or 2 or 4, wherein, ​

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