Design and Control of Underwater Vehicle for NDT Inspections

This paper deals with design and control of unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) for nondestructive testing and inspections of submerged technologies. It covers water tanks, dams, reservoir, etc. The vehicle is designed as a neutrally buoyant rigid body with platform containing the phased array probe for weld testing. It works in two regimes - remote operational regime (6DOF) and AUV regime (3DOF). For the 6DOF maneuvering we design a symmetric vectored arrangement of eight thrusters. The symmetry in thruster positioning is utilized for design a symmetry stabilization PID control. The mathematical model was created in Matlab/Simulink and implemented in real time control system REX. The model is used for hardware in the loop simulations. Real time guidance of vehicle model is optimized and modified according to demands of operator.