Development of an electronic control system for remote controlled underwater vehicles

This paper describes a microcomputer-based control system for a new generation of remote controlled underwater vehicles, the RCV-150. A general description of the overall RCV-150 is included. In order to provide a high degree of flexibility and preclude early obsolescence of a newly designed vehicle, a dual microcomputer control system was determined to be the most desirable, cost effective and maintainable control system. The system itself consists of two medium speed 16-bit microcomputers, one in the submerged vehicle and the other in the surface control unit. These two units communicate with each other through an RF telemetry link which utilizes asynchronous communications techniques. The hardware consists of several microcomputer peripheral devices specifically designed to occupy a minimum volume and achieve maximum MTBF. These devices include D/A and A/D converters, digital I/O channels, UART channels and video generators. In addition to the digital electronics, a four channel RF telemetry system carrying TV video on an FM carrier, command and telemetry links on FSK channels and sonar video on an AM channel was developed. Also, a high current, multiple output power supply was developed that is capable of operating in hydrostatic pressures up to 3,000 PSIA. The microcomputer software consists of two basic programs, one for the vehicle and one for the surface control unit. The vehicle program includes the servo control and sensor analysis routines while the surface control program contains the control decoding and display generation routines. Common to both programs are the routines for the real time clock, stall alarms and data communications. Trade-off analysis of the subsystems has produced a working control system that is synergistic with the peripheral support equipment required by the end user to provide a wide variety of work tasks. This paper cites experience obtained from offshore operation of the first production units.