The design of an miniature underwater robot for hazardous environment

An miniature underwater robotic system for hazardous environment has been developed. The system consists of an underwater robot, a robot control station and a cameral control station. The underwater robot is installed two cameras for inspection, one is a camera of radiation resistant with two-freedom PTZ in the front of the robot, and the other is a fixed camera in the back of the robot. A miniature manipulator is equipped under the fore-camera to catch the small parts like bolts and nuts in the pools. The movement of the underwater robot is controlled by the master control station and the cameral control station controls the rotation and focus of the fore-camera. Besides, the underwater robot is equipped with the sensors, as MEMS inertial measurement unit, magnetometers, side scan sonar, water-depth gauges, which are integrated to determine the orientation and location of the robot. Meanwhile the navigation information is displayed in the virtual environment, which is modeled upon the real pools of the nuclear power plant. The underwater robotic system is easy to operate and will be applied to the hazardous environment like nuclear environment in future.