Modeling, design, and control of low-cost Remotely Operated Vehicle for shallow water survey

Shallow water zones, including lakes, ponds, creeks, and rivers, play a prominent role in the spiritual culture and economy of Vietnamese people throughout history. Therefore, numerous researches have been conducted in regard to this topic for many purposes, most of which focus on elevating the quality of life and safety. With the aid of new technology, modern platforms gradually replace conventional methods and reach a higher level of efficiency and convenience. This paper presents the research on design and control of Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) belonging to National key Laboratory of Digital Control and System Engineering. Basically, it is controlled by human pilots to move underwater and perform specifically pre-assigned tasks. The power supply and communication channel for the vehicle are connected from an onshore station via cable systems. There are several stages of the pipeline in implementing a full-scale ROV platform that must be studied carefully. Prior to the experiments in practical conditions, the proposed 3D model designed by SOLIDWORKS® and MATLAB Simulink® mathematical model analysis firstly provide a nonlinear plant in order to apply classical PID controllers and evaluate their feasibility through simulation process. The outer frame protects other components from being damaged or unattached, while the thruster allocation strategy from the simulated model enables flexibility in motion. A system of sensors and cameras collects data from an underwater environment for on-the-spot monitoring, or they can be captured for further post-analysis processes. After assembling all parts into a whole model, we launched the vehicle at the maximum depth of a pool as the condition of a shallow water survey. Optimistic experimental results have proved the ability of controllers even in case of the presence of external disturbances.