Sevsu Sevrov Technical Documentation 2021
Sevsu Sevrov Technical Documentation 2021
Mate 2021
Technical documentation
1
Table of Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 3
Abstract .............................................................................................................. 3
Mechanical design.................................................................................................. 4
Base idea ............................................................................................................. 4
Frame design....................................................................................................... 5
Thrusters ............................................................................................................. 6
Electronics Housing ............................................................................................. 7
Camera................................................................................................................ 8
Manipulator ........................................................................................................ 8
Electronical design ................................................................................................. 9
Overview ............................................................................................................. 9
Topside Electronics ............................................................................................. 9
ROV side............................................................................................................ 10
Program design .................................................................................................... 11
Project management ............................................................................................ 12
2
Introduction
Abstract
SevROV - student group of the Sevastopol State University. In 2021, we held the MATE
Russia-Far East Regional ROV Competition in our region, and this event prompted us
to take part in the MATE ROV Competition 2021 in the Explorer class.
We started our ROV developments in 2019 with concept of ROV with Y-frame chassis.
It was our first fully own-made ROV. Development of this ROV was a great challenge
for us. Originally, we weren’t aim for MATE ROV competition and trying to make a
vehicle based on our knowledge and the components available at that time. In 2020
we took part in the all-Russian competition in marine robotics to test our solutions in
practice and it showed the competitiveness of our ROV.
In this document, we will show our design decisions and how we achieve high
maneuverability of our ROV only with 6 thrusters on it.
3
Mechanical design
Base idea
Our design is based on the idea of Y-frame chassis. This type of frame is common in
aerial and mobile robotic, but rarely found in underwater robots. We consider to
correct this injustice and make our own ROV with Y-frame. This frame has great
possibilities: we can achieve controllability in 6 degrees of freedom with only 6
thrusters. This feature is usually achieved by suing 8 thrusters, so we have 25% of max
power savings just from start. Negative side of Y-frame is lower speed and lower
carrying capacity, but as practice later showed, the carrying capacity of our ROV turns
out to be no worse than that of 8-trhruster analogues.
Second hypothetical idea is that with Y-frame we can better distribute mass of ROV
with load of different cargo in manipulator. On figure 1 mass of cargo (m) on
manipulator (E) moves center of masses of ROV further to front side thanks to which
the entire mass of the vehicle with a load falls on the thrusters 1 and 2 with a small
arm of forces, so their efficiency is rising. Along with this, the arm of the forces of the
thruster 3 increases, which allows it to effectively control the pitch of ROV.
4
Frame design
ROV development starts with designing of its frame. Frame need to be made of sheet
polyethylene 10mm thick with joint-to-joint assembly and connect all mechanical
parts of designed ROV.
Frame designing starts in CAD such as Autodesk Fusion 360 and first step is made
schematic arrangement of main components: electronics unit, thrusters, and
manipulator. The location of these components determines the size of the vehicle and
its dimensions.
Next step is to make a 3D model of frame using dimensions of all elements and make
full composition of ROV to check is ROV layout correct.
5
Thrusters
In our ROV we using 2kgf thrusters(fig.4) based on brushless DC motors with built in
electronic speed controllers (ESCs). We choose those thrusters because we have a
some of them from our previous ROV and reuse of them was a great idea to save
money. Great feature of this motors is that their ESCs are built in metal casing which
contacts with water, so ESCs never overheating and can work on high load for a long
time.
Fig.4 – thruster
6
Electronics Housing
For keep all electronics dry and safe underwater we consider to build waterproof
casing for all electronics. Casing made with holes for connectors to connect all
electronical components and tether. Casing has no windows so we need to use
external camera.
Designing of casing for electronics was a one of biggest challenges of all development.
It needs to be waterproof for at least 100 meters deep. We came to final design of
cylindric chassis with two caps, one cap has all connectors for interfacing, second cap
has only depth sensor and pressure relief valve/airtight testing valve. Valve on second
cap is using only for ease of assembly and for tightness check on surface.
7
Camera
On our ROV we have to use external
camera, so we consider to reuse camera for
our previous ROV. This is a simple FPV
camera in acrylic cylindric casing. It has a
servo motor in it, which allows to rotate
camera. Rotatable camera makes control of
robot much easier.
Because our camera operates only with Fig. 7 – camera
analog signal, we cant make any computer vision in our ROV and for future we will be
change this camero to digital to be able compute video signal.
Manipulator
As many of others components, we reuse manipulator from previous ROV. This
manipulator is controlled by simple two-channel dc motor driver (we using monster
motor shield in our ROV) and control by voltage from 12v to 24v. It has big grip and
can rotate on 360 degrees without wire twisting.
Fig. 8 – manipulator
8
Electronical design
Overview
Our team aimed for flexibility and ability to make improvements on fly, so we consider
to use in our system server-client architecture. This architecture comes with
Raspberry PI 3B+ on ROV side as server and laptop on surface as client.
As server Raspberry PI in ROV compute all data, send data to client side, and controls
all components of ROV. Laptop only send controlling information from
gamepad/joystick and shows video and information from ROV.
Topside Electronics
9
ROV side
11
Project management
We are student team of 4 people, and we have flat hierarchy in our work.
Roles are:
Igor Ermakov – Technical engineer, electrical engineer, programmer.
Yuriy Balashov – Program engineer.
Darya Medvedeva – Electrical engineer.
Anastasiya Vorobeva – documentation, organization support.
We started work on this project in 2019. And we set one big requirement – we need
to use only parts, that we already have from previous ROV. So main expenses were
for electronics housing and electronic components.
Table 1 - expenses
Item Type Amount qty. Cost
Thrusters re-used 200 6 1200
HDPE for frame re-used 215 1 215
Manipulator re-used 410 1 410
Camera re-used 95 1 95
DC converters re-used 69 2 138
Electronics donated 684 1 684
Housing
PCBs and purchased 352 1 352
electronics
Wi-Fi router purchased 20 1 20
gamepad purchased 50 1 50
Total 3164
Total spend 422
12