Developing a new HAUV system

1) Setup an experimental test standard design to study the performance of the motor-propeller
combinations in both air and water environments.

2) Design the vehicle structure and geometry.

3) Choose the best suitable motor, propeller, variable pitch mechanism, esc and battery combination
for the hybrid operation.

4) Evaluate the preliminary feasibility of using aerial variable-pitch propellers underwater

5) Define the steady state region for flight mode and Aquatic mode ass well as the transition altitude
zone.

6) Choose a control and transition strategy for the aerial and underwater motion control of the HAUV.

7) Isolating the electronics to make the vehicle waterproof.

8) Customize the flight code for the unique operation in the specific medium and flash it to the flight
controller.

9) Tune the PID gains and rates of the HAUV and make use of a data logger to measure the performance
of the HAUV
 Why variable pitch actuation for HAUV
Manoeuvrability: Variable pitch propellers provide greater control over the vehicle's movement
underwater, allowing it to change direction, speed, and depth more easily than fixed pitch propellers. This is
particularly important when the drone needs to change its course or navigate through tight spaces.

The underwater thrust generation and controller bandwidth of the motors can be increased (by a factor of
4) when the pitch and rpm are changed together. This leads to a higher overall thrust for the system since
the steady-state motor speed remains constant, effectively cancelling out the motor dynamics.

Efficiency: Variable pitch propellers allow the HAUV to adjust the angle of the blades, which in turn affects
the thrust and speed of the drone. It can produce thrust underwater by increasing the blade pitch without
having to increase the motor supply voltage, thus reducing the power consumption and extending the
battery life. To move efficiently through the water a low rpm and higher blade pitch can be used. For flight
conditions a lower blade pitch, with a high rpm will be more efficient.

Versatility: The vehicle can operate in a wider range of environments and conditions. For example, the
propellers can be set to a lower pitch for slow, precise movement in shallow water, or to a higher pitch for
faster movement in deeper water. This assists the HAUV in the presence of ocean currents, waves, and other
external disturbances that require greater power.

The kinetic energy stored in the motor (reserve torque) can also be maximized for unique operation. By
keeping the motor speed at its upper limit when hovering with a lower pitch, the high kinetic energy stored
in the motor can quickly be converted to thrust when the pitch is changed rapidly resulting in a high rate of
change in lift.

Deciding which thrust actuation mechanism to use, depends on if you are concerned about minimizing
power consumption or the ability to quickly increase the thrust of the motors. The control methods change
the thrust by varying voltage, varying pitch or using a combination of the two.

The images below indicates the operational range of an variable pitch quadcopter in air when the rotation
speed and pitch angle is varied. For example to achieve a Thrust of 2.1N: a high speed(700rpm) with a low
pitch(7deg) can be used or an lower speed(3800rpm) with a high pitch(17deg) can be combined. When
operating underwater the motor speed will be limited, thus having the option to increase the propeller pitch
will result in achieving a desirable thrust with out cogging the motor.

The propulsion can also be set a more power efficient option by choosing a motor speed of 4000rpm a and
a pitch of 12deg.

Safety: Decreasing the blade pitch to a negative value will result in instantaneous negative thrust. This will
help the vehicle decelerate or stop much more effectively. It allows for a safer operation in case of
emergency the vehicle can be quickly stopped or accelerate towards the water surface for egress.

Overall, the use of variable pitch propellers on a HAUV allows for increased controller bandwidth and reverse
thrust capabilities. A significant improvement in system’s underwater performance can be achieved by using
a variable pitch system that can alter the thrust mapping to suit the operating medium and actuation modes.

Why use quadcopter as vehicle type

The unique hovering and VTOL capabilities make it easier to conduct flight, dive, and cross the domain for
transition. Other HAUV configurations require a steep angle of attack with a high speed for transition. They
struggle with post-transition stability and are unable to successfully perform several transitions between
mediums.
Control strategy (Aerial-/Aquatic controller)
The HAUV must rely on closed loop control for stable flight and underwater control it cannot rely on manual
flight operations. An Aerial controller and Aquatic (underwater) controller will be used for the two types of
locomotion.

Flight controller - Teensy 4.1

https://www.robotics.org.za/DEV-16771

The Teensy 4.1 is a microcontroller with an extremely fast processor speed of 600MHz. It is not a flight
computer, that could handle advanced autonomy, computer vision, or path planning. The Teensy is coupled
to an external IMU module, which is mounted on vibration isolation foam in the HAUV's center. An external
barometer might be used for more accurate results to measure the depth of the vehicle underwater.

MPU6050 IMU with accelerometer, gyroscope,

and barometer

Flight controller firmware - dRehmFkight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlD0C5CrWcA&ab_channel=NicholasRehm

dRehmFlight is a simple flight controller stabilization software designed to be easy to understand. It is

designed to be modified before using it in virtually any small VTOL configuration. The code is compiled and
uploaded using the Arduino IDE and Teensyduino add-on. It is optimised for small UAVs to be used for hobby
or academic research purposes. The code provides all the necessary radio interface, IMU interface, actuator
outputs, sensor filtering and simple PID controller methods to allow for complete stabilization of a small
flying vehicle.
 Control strategy
Steady state region

The steady state region is defined outside the boundaries of the transition region. The flight model and
underwater model of the HAUV can safely operate in this predefined region without the concern of system
failure.

Switch control

The vehicle is controlled remotely using the RC transmitter. The transmitter consists of 6 channels:
1 - Throttle
2 - Roll
3 - Pitch
4 - Yaw
5 - flight controller/aquatic controller.
6-

The Flight and Aquatic controller will either have a fixed propeller pitch for the specific operational medium
or channel 6 will be used for varying the propeller pitch in locomotion.

1 Flight model

In flight mode, RPM control is used to stabilize the vehicle for accent, decent and hover. This is achieved by
varying the PWM speed of the motors. For flying the propeller pitch and motor rpm will be used to maximize
efficiency and save battery power.

The flight control will adopt the motion capture system of the dRehmFkight firmware.
• Filtering and fusing the IMU data
• Controller selection(Rate, Angle) and tuning
• Motor control mixing
• Data and flight logging

2 Underwater model

The underwater control will be a modification of the aerial controller.

When operating underwater, the HAUV is unable to rely on GPS for location and time information, so instead
the HAUV must depend on its IMU and pressure sensor (barometer). However, the vehicle cannot achieve
full 6 DOF autonomy underwater. To address this limitation, we are employing a depth estimator with a
Madgwick filter to estimate the vehicle's depth and vertical speed. Additionally, given the small linear
acceleration underwater, we can assume a constant acceleration over the sampling time. Regrettably, we
are unable to include yaw control because we do not have a reliable yaw measurement underwater. This
means that only its roll and pitch can be controlled together with the throttle input.

The rotational speed of the motors will be limited to a maximum, otherwise the brushless motors will
undergo cogging due to an overload, and the motors' speed controllers will shut down.

The vehicle can change direction much more effectively by varying the pitch of the propellers. Improving
the diving capabilities of the vehicle in VTOL transition and vertical movement by increasing the pitch on the
variable pitch propeller and lowering the motor’s speed

Trans media operation

A complete real-time triggering mechanism is proposed to guarantee continuous and rapid cross-domain
locomotion without neglecting the system’s stability. During the transition period, the HAUV will inevitably
encounter wave disturbance resulting in attitude fluctuations. Therefore, it is necessary to find a relatively
small and stable moment of attitude as the transition region. The exit and entry velocities should be
optimized with the concerns of energy saving and structural integrity in the presence of water impact.

Air-to-water ingress
Once the HAUV approaches the water surface for ingress, the pressure sensors are checked to see how far
the HAUV is from the water surface. Once the altitude triggers the transition altitude zone the HAUV will
find a stable attitude, entry speed and angle of attack for ingress. To reduce the force impact on the
propulsion, the rotors can also be turned off, allowing the vehicle to free fall into water. If the ingress
speed is to low it may weaken the ability of disturbance rejection for wind waves and currents.

Water-to-air egress
When accelerating towards the water surface for egress, a depth estimator is used to track the vertical
position and velocity of the HAUV. The propellers need to be fully out of the water and establish a stable
thrust and buoyancy before switching the control to air mode.

If the vehicle leaves water to fast, the effect of the hydrodynamic damping and entrained water in the
motors and structure will cause the vehicle to momentarily weigh more. The power consumption of the
propulsion will consequently need to increase. Though a slow water-exit process helps to mitigate the
problem, it prolongs the duration of the exit and thus expends more energy. Therefore, the take-off
velocity and time the propellers are exposed to air should be optimized by considering the aspects of the
water resistance, the draining dynamics of the entrained water, and the energy consumption.