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Surge detecting with a spherical sensor

Zhijie Tang (School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China)
Qian Luo (School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China)
Xinnan Leng (School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China)
Pinglong Liu (School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China)
Jun Luo (School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China)

Sensor Review

ISSN: 0260-2288

Article publication date: 21 March 2016

200

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to design a spherical sensor which can detect the surge from various directions to lay the foundation of the research of surge.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper designed a spherical sensor to detect the impact force generated by the surge. To realize the depth and stability control of the shallow underwater vehicles, it is necessary to do research and analysis on the surge in shallow waters. The spherical sensor with novel structure was skillfully composed of 24 cantilever beam pressure-type strain sensors. It is powerful to detect the surge from various directions simultaneously.

Findings

It is proved that the spherical sensor can accurately collect the surge data from multiple directions through experiments, which laid the foundation of the anti-surge study.

Research limitations/implications

Surge is not a new topic. But there is no effective tool to detect surge. The research of this paper is an attempt to provide an available tool to analyze surge. The research limitation is that the pool where the spherical sensor is installed is a little small. In the future, a bigger pool can be used.

Practical implications

A deep and comprehensive analysis of surge can be conducted according to the surge data detected by the spherical sensor to achieve the essential features of surge. This lays the foundation for the accurate control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), especially fixed depth and stability control.

Social implications

As the control accuracy of AUVs increases, the AUVs can perform much more difficult tasks such as port monitoring, underwater salvaging, underwater pipeline maintenance and so on. These can be applied in commercial applications or in the national defense of many countries.

Originality/value

A novel spherical sensor using 24 cantilever beam pressure-type strain sensors to detect the surge was designed. The spherical sensor was installed in the physical surge simulator to collect surge data and conduct an analysis of the collected data.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51005142), Innovation Program of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (No.14YZ010) and Shanghai Natural Science Foundation (No.14ZR1414900) for providing support for this work.

Citation

Tang, Z., Luo, Q., Leng, X., Liu, P. and Luo, J. (2016), "Surge detecting with a spherical sensor", Sensor Review, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 130-139. https://doi.org/10.1108/SR-12-2014-0765

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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