Propulsion mechanism improvement of a robotic knife fish

• Main Author: Low, Yong Teck.
• Other Authors: Tang Chee Onn
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/53426
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In the 21st century, not only are robots a good helper for human being in manufacturing purposes as they provide human beings a high working efficiency and reduce their working load. Nowadays robots are used in the ocean, which are called Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV). Due to the decrease of scuba divers in recent years, there is an increased demand to look for alternative solutions to tasks such as resource exploration in the ocean, sea lane obstacle monitoring, sunken ship salvage, ecosystem monitoring, archeology exploration and repair of cables and pipe lines underwater etc. Therefore, an AUV is one of the most promising alternative solutions to the lack of scuba divers. The objective of this final year project is to prepare a knife fish AUV for the Singapore Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge 2013 by improving the mechanism fins, re-designing the servo motor housing, and constructing the three targets including the gate zone, flare and hoop for practice. The project is divided into several phases: research, basic design, part acquisition, assembly, testing, documentation and demonstration. As the outcome of this project, the existing mechanism fin design is improved so as to enhance the AUV performance. This final year report consists of literature review, design and experiment of mechanism fins in the robotic research centre water tank as well as the Nanyang Technological University Sport and Recreation Centre swimming pool, design and testing of servo motor housing, construct and test the three targets. In the end, a conclusion is given to wrap up the whole process of the author’s learning journey and show how it enriches his process in the course of his study.