Seawater hydraulic actuator system for underwater manipulator

A seawater hydraulic actuator system for a subsea robot has been developed. The system consists of a high pressure axial piston pump, flow control servovalves and actuators which transform controlled flow into motion, and it is very effective in miniaturizing a subsea robot. In order to confirm overall characteristic of this power systems, a prototype telemanipulator for underwater work has been also developed. A manipulator control system is based on a master-slave method with some telepresence technique to provide easy operation of a manipulator. Through running experiments in underwater manipulation, overall characteristic of the seawater hydraulic system and working performance of the prototype subsea manipulator have been confirmed to be good enough for practical use.<>