A flexible hingeless control surface model was proposed for motion control of Underwater Vehicles (UVs),which is inspiredby the flexible bending control surfaces of underwater creatures,such as fish and squid.Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) simulation demonstrates that,in comparison with the hinged or rigid control surface,the proposed flexible bendingcontrol surface can suppress the flow separation so as to improve the turning performance.A prototype of the flexible controlsurface was fabricated,in which Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) wires were selected as the actuators.The elastic energy storageand exchange mechanism was incorporated into the actuation of the control surface to improve the efficiency.Thermal analysisof SMA wires was performed to find proper actuating condition.Open-loop bending experiments were carried out.The resultsshow that the proposed control surface can achieve the maximum bending angle of 104°.Moreover,the power and energyconsumption under different pulse conditions were compared.
Zhenlong Wang,Jian Li,Guanrong Hang,Yangwei Wang State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System,Harbin Institute of Technology,Harbin 150001,P.R.China
