Dynamic Processes in Vacuum Contact Devices of Robots for Vertical Motion in the Water Environment

Abstract

The results of experimental investigation intended to improve movement conditions for pneumatic robots on vertical surfaces under water are discussed. Features of the movement of vacuum contact devices for the simulation of mathematical model of the vacuum contact device with surfaces under water are presented. The experimental studies made it possible to obtain additional data on the dynamics of attachment, to obtain transient processes for air-water flow through ejector and to correct the results obtained earlier. For the purpose of analytical study of dynamic processes occurring in the system of vacuum contact devices, and taking into account the complexity of the description of nonlinearities, linearized simplified models of the system "air ejector — contact device — water environment" were developed. Vacuum contact devices are designed to provide guaranteed contact with vertical surfaces, plane slopes or horizontal surfaces on which the underwater robot performs its movement, carrying out the prescribed technological tasks, for example, in dry wells of nuclear power plants, on the surfaces of ship hulls, on the surfaces of underwater structures. The models took into account the forces of adhesion to the surfaces under water — the forces from the pressure drop, the friction force, the contact and vacuum interaction, the elasticity of suction caps. As a result of the solution of the model problem, the values of mechanical parameters, as well as the values of vacuum and flow in the cavity of variable volume as functions of changing the gap between the end of the corrugated membrane and the surfaces are obtained explicitly. As a result of the study of dynamic processes occurring in simplified models of vacuum contact devices "air ejector — contact surface — water environment", the transient characteristics of the change in the operating forces and pressures over time, as well as the dependence of the normal and tangential components of the forces on the depth of immersion in water were obtained. The variants of the designs of vacuum contact devices with surfaces in the water environment are investigated, and the modernization of the laboratory test bench for testing vacuum contact devices under water is carried out.