Evaluation of Propulsion System Used in URRG-Autonomous Surface Vessel (ASV)

Abstract This paper presents the analysis of the electric propulsion system used in Underwater Robotic Research Group's (URRG) -Autonomous Surface Vessel (ASV) at different Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) values. The system is driven by two propellers that are each coupled to a DC electric motor. An experiment has been conducted to observe the relation between the PWM values and the thrust produced by the propulsion system. A Statistical Design of Experiment (DOE) method; known as the Completely Randomized Design (CRD), was used to plan the experiment in order to improve the validity of the experimental data. The statistical methods known as the One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Fisher's Least Significant Difference (LSD), and regression were used to analyze the data. The analysis showed that the PWM values have a significant effect on the mean amount of thrust. The amount of thrust increases linearly as the PWM value increase by 0.28 for 5% increase in PWM value.