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ROBOT MANIPULATORS
by Tom Carroll
My wife and I recently returned from a vacation in Hawaii. One of the highlights
was a trip on one of the 48-passenger Atlantis tourist submarines. Earlier, I happened to
have met the senior pilot, Brian Ott of the Atlantis IX, based in Lahaina. He and his wife
happened to be taking a short vacation at the same resort where we were staying.
Sitting by one of the pools, we got to talking about his submarine. He knew that I had
an interest in submarines and was ‘into robotics’. We were discussing the underwater
remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) that were trying to stop the Deepwater Horizon Gulf
oil spill disaster and how they used their robot manipulator arms in various underwater
tasks. Brian thought it might be interesting to have a pair of robot arms and ‘hands’ to
pick up and examine various items he saw on the ocean floor, though tourist subs are
certainly not research vehicles. He felt that a pair of arms working together like his own
would work best, not just a robot arm as one would find on an industrial robot. During
my trip in the sub, he allowed me to sit in the pilot’s area with him and I could easily
see how his view of the sea floor through the sub’s large four foot diameter domed
port (at the bow) made objects enticing enough to pick up and examine.
Sub Systems
Brian and his crew spent a few minutes
showing me some of the submarine’s
different systems while there were no other
tourists aboard. The Atlantis IX is part of
the world’s largest private submarine fleet.
Each of the multi-million dollar vessels are
meticulously built. Figure 1 shows the
Atlantis IX surfacing aft of the surface
support vessel. I was amazed just how much
of each subsystem was controlled in the
same manner as mobile robots (especially
high power combat robots). At 65 feet in
length and displacing 80 tons, the sub runs
on 20 huge 12 volt lead acid 1,280 amp
hour batteries. The main bi-directional,
brushless thrusters (two 20 HP main stern,
two 10 HP vertical, and one 10 HP bow)
and 20 1,000 watt exterior floodlights
FIGURE 1. Atlantis IX surfacing after a dive.
SERVO 09.2010 77