| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/L29217/01 |
| Title: |
INVESTIGATION OF 'ELEPHANTS TRUNK' FLEXIBLE ACTUATORS FOR SUBSEA INSPECTION AND STABILISATION |
| Principal Investigator: |
Davies, Dr J |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Mechanical & Chemical Engineering |
| Organisation: |
Heriot-Watt University |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 February 1997 |
Ends: |
30 June 1999 |
Value (£): |
160,030
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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The project will investigate the use of the elephant's trunk actuator in two possible subsea applications. For inspection tasks, where camera, NDT or other sensors must be placed on a structure in a cluttered environment, trunk designs will be evaluated to show benefits over traditional robot arms. For ROV stabilisation, with minimum disturbance to the seabed, elephant's trunks will be evaluated controlling paddles, oscillating foils or oscillating mat (scilia) thrust generators. Detailed possible designs will be proposed, and two selected. These will be constructed as laboratory prototypes, and evaluated to measure important practical characteristics. For inspection, these are dexterity for curving around obstacles, positioning accuracy and applied forces and torques in contact. For swimming, there are the maximum applied thrust, and the ability to vary thrust direction. Consideration will be given to position/ velocity sensing the truck motion, and to possible control schemes for position/velocity control inspection and swimming. Finally, an assessment of the practical feasibility of the candidate designs will be made.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.hw.ac.uk |