Development and improvement of an underactuated underwater robotic vehicle

This paper is a compilation of studies of the development and improvement of an underactuated remotely operated vehicle (ROV) - RRC ROV II. The development of the RRC ROV II is based largely on the first generation vehicle - RRC ROV I. RRC ROV II is comparatively larger in size and capacity, thus allowing the inclusion of better and more intelligent control. In this paper, the problems regulating such an underactuated ROV are addressed by designing a new control algorithm, so as to control the vehicle motions using only four actuators. In the initial part of the paper, models for the thrusters are presented, followed by the controller for the ROV. The simulated and experimental results of the controllers for RRC ROV II, using Matlab´s Simulink, are also presented in comparison with the RRC ROV I.