Design of a controllable pitch underwater thruster system

Control systems for underwater vehicles have reached the level of sophistication where they are limited by the dynamic performance of the thrust actuators. Standard fixed-pitch propellers have been shown to have very poor dynamic characteristics, particularly at low thrust levels The dynamic response of a fixed-pitch propeller is dependent upon highly non-linear transients encountered while the shaft speed approaches its steady-state value. This thesis proposes the use of a controllable pitch propeller system to address this problem. A controllable pitch propeller varies the amount of thrust produced by varying the pitch angle of the blades at a constant shaft speed. The bandwidth of this type of thrust actuator would be dependent primarily on the speed at which the pitch angle of the blades are changed. A variable pitch propeller system suitable for retrofit into an ROV is designed and built. The system is designed for maximal pitch angle bandwidth with low actuator power consumption.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Year dc:date.issued

1993

Author dc:creator

• Keefe, Robert W.

• Remote submersibles

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

DOI

10.1575/1912/5531

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/5531