Optical System for Underwater Positioning of Observation Class Remotely Operated Vehicle

• To make wave power a viable energy source, large clusters of wave energy converters (WECs) will be deployed into large farms. For most of these farms, the output power of the WECs will be aggregated in a marine substation and then transmitted to the grid. The need for cost effective underwater connection operations is one of the main challenges with this kind of offshore installation. Our research is related to underwater connection with help of Observation Class Remotely Operated Vehicles (OC ROVs). The main idea is to use a docking system in order for the small and light ROV to perform the connection, using the reaction force from its docking point instead of the motors propulsion, the latter being too little. This docking operation has to be very accurate and needs both an autopilot and a good positioning tool. In this paper we present an optical positioning system made of green lasers that together with the ROV’s camera measure the distances to the docking point. This is obtained by tracking the laser beams on the images captured from the camera and using triangulation of the points extracted. The tool has been implemented into an OCROV and tested in a tank.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Annan elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

ROV

positioning

underwater connections

wave energy converters

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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