Energy efficiency of underwater robots

Abstract Increasing efficiency by improving locomotion methods is a key issue for underwater robots. In this paper, we investigate the power consumption of different underwater robotic systems and compare the energy efficiency of the different robots depending on the desired motion. In particular, we compare the energy efficiency of underwater snake robots, which can provide both inspection and intervention capabilities and thus are interesting candidates for the next generation inspection and intervention AUVs, with those of the widely used robots for subsea operations which are the remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). In order to compare the energy efficiency of underwater snake robots with the energy efficiency of the ROVs, a simulation study is performed comparing the total energy consumption and the cost of transportation of underwater snake robots and ROVs. The simulation results show that with respect to the cost of transportation metric and the total energy consumption the underwater snake robots are more energy efficient for all the compared motion modes compared to the ROVs.

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