RETRACTED: A design of wet-mateable connector aiming for contactless power transfer and optical communication

Abstract

At present, contact watertight connectors are commonly utilized for the connection between underwater electromechanical equipment and the seabed observation network. Such conventional watertight connectors are inevitably likely to be irreversibly worn when plugging and unplugging, besides complicated sealing structures and limited service life. This paper designs a Wet-Mateable connector aiming for Contactless Power Transfer and Optical Communication (PTOC-WMC), which is based on technology of Contactless Power Transmission (CLPT) and optical communication. Docking structure of the sockets and plugs are designed, facilitating Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to operate. A prototype of the PTOC-WMC was established. The experimental results show that the connector designed can achieve 200W power transmission, with a maximum power transmission efficiency of 94%. The communication bandwidth reaches 18MHz. The PTOC-WMC can assist the rapid and safe deployment and operation of seabed observation network.