Development and modelling of a three-thurster remotely operated vehicle using open source hardware

This paper presents the development and modelling of a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) which consists of three thrusters using open source hardware. First, the hardware of the vehicle, including the actuators, sensors and control system, is described. Second, to study the relationship between thrust forces and performance of the ROV, a mathematical model of the vehicle in form of a dynamic model with hydrodynamic coefficients is established. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis is conducted to identify the hydrodynamic coefficients of the ROV dynamic model, including the linear damping coefficients and quadratic damping coefficients. Based on the CFD results and mathematical equations, a ROV simulation model is developed to evaluate the performance and manoeuvrability of the ROV system. Finally, closed loop control is applied for ROV speed and depth control and the stability of the vehicle in pitch motion is analysed in this paper.