The design and application of a novel vectored thruster for special-shaped AUV

AUVs, as the primary platform, have significantly contributed to underwater surveys in scientific, and military fields. Enhancing the manoeuvrability of autonomous underwater vehicles is crucial for their development. A novel vectorial thruster is present in this paper. The thrust-vectoring mechanism of the novel vectorial thruster has two rotational degrees of freedom achieved by a linear actuator and a steering engine. The effectiveness of the AUVs is notably enhanced at low forward speeds with the specially designed thrust-vectoring mechanism. A theoretical analysis has been conducted to investigate and verify the kinematics of the thrust-vectoring mechanism. the spatial attitude control test and propulsive force test of the vectorial thruster are made to evaluate its performance. Finally, open-hoop control was applied to the control of a real SAUV, and experiments were conducted in a water tank The experimental results demonstrate that the performance of this type of vectorial thruster is acceptable, and the design is worthy of further research.