Mechanical design of surface vehicle

Abstract

Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) which is an autonomous robotic systems used in the maritime domain, has been growing interest in commercial, scientific and military to increase the productivity while reducing the operational risk. The objective of the project is to design the platform of the USV for the upcoming Maritime RobotX Challenge 2022. It is an international competition that gathers students with interest in USV and builds international relationships among institutions and companies. This paper provides an overview of different conceptual designs of the USV for Team Nanyang Technological University. By focusing on the simplicity and reliability of the mechanical design, embodiment design is developed upon the requirement and performance. The finalised design undergoes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation and static structural analysis. Lastly, using the Virtual RobotX Challenge (VRX) Simulator to test the feasibility of the design. As the project is still occurring, the VRX simulation and prototyping will be completed after the time of report writing. The assembly of the USV will also be taken placed in the future for the Maritime RobotX Challenge 2022.