The Design And Implementation Of The Prototype Of Underwater Docking System

With the short of the resources, the human beings explore the ocean deeper and deeper. The ocean developing technology and the corresponding equipment get developed. Various underwater vehicles appeared. The endurance ability of UUV is a key index of its working performance, so its endurance ability needs to be improved. Traditionally, the vehicle is recovered to the land and is supplied energy, but the continuity is interrupted and the process is complicated and time-consuming. The appearance of the underwater docking technology makes the underwater docking equipment do the energy supplement and information transmission in water. Therefore the development of the underwater docking system and the research of the underwater docking technology have important significance.Based on the docking target that installed the docking rod, the paper designed a prototype of the underwater docking system, established the overall scheme and the docking method of the principle prototype of the underwater docking system. At the same time, it described the mechanical structure of the manipulator and the docking station those compose the docking system. The actuator of every part was given and the corresponding motion parameters were known.For the design of the prototype, the paper used the D-H method to analyze the kinematics of the manipulator. The position kinematics analysis of the manipulator provides theoretical basis for the success of the initial docking, that is to say, when the docking target moves in the working space of the manipulator the initial docking will success. The paper analyzed the kinematics of the accurate docking which is after the success of the initial docking. Combining the graphical method and the numerical method, the ultimate trim angle of the docking target was gotten. Only when the attitude of the docking target meets the demand, the accurate docking would realize. In order to decrease the ultimate trim angle of the docking target and improve the chances of the successful docking, improved algorithms were proposed. To improve the design of the principle prototype or the docking target, the accurate docking will be easier.The paper designed the corresponding control system for the underwater docking system, introduced the scheme of control system and described the main components of the control system, namely, the docking operating levers, the upper computer, the Programmable Logical Controller(PLC) and so on. The control process and method of the underwater docking system is given. The docking operating lever can communicate with the upper computer by taking advantage of the serial communication. The communication modes of the S7-200 PLC are introduced. The Free-port mode communication can realize the communication between the S7-200 PLC and the Industrial Personal Computer(IPC). Also the paper elaborates the principle, realization method, and communication instructions of the Freeport communication mode in detail.The software design of the control system is done in upper computer’s Windows environment. Using the Visual C++ and based on the MFC, the paper developed the man-machine conversation interface of the underwater docking control system. The serial communication with the docking operating lever and the data processing was realized by programming. In PLC, the program of realizing the Free-port mode communication was programmed. The program in PLC makes the Free-port communication with the upper computer come true, processes the data from the upper computer, and delivers the output to the actuators.The principle prototype and its control system were tested preliminarily. The communication between the docking operating lever and the IPC is good, so as to the communication between the IPC and the PLC. The data exchange of the communication is stable. The controller’s output is accurate. By operating the docking operating lever, the actuators can be controlled conveniently.