Recently, Chenxin Lyu, co-supervised by Zheng Zeng and Lian Lian, published online in Journal of Field Robotics entitled Toward a Gliding Hybrid Aerial Underwater Vehicle: Design, Fabrication, and Experiments. This paper presents theoretical analysis, design criteria, prototype design, and experimental work of Nezha III (VTOL), a new type of Hybrid Aerial Underwater Vehicle (HAUV). This Research is supported in part by the Shanghai Committee Science and Technology Project 20dz1206600, the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai under Grant 20ZR1424800 and partly by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Scientific and Technological Innovation Funds under Grant 2019QYB04.
Flight-dive-flight cycle overview
Nezha III buoyancy-attitude coupling control
Fixed-wing fly and underwater gliding constraint analysis
The new concept HAUV is a highly maneuverable cross-media carrier platform that can travel through the air and water. For the first time, the marine technology team of the School of Oceanography organically integrated the design concept of the Underwater Glider （UG） with the design idea of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and innovatively proposed a multi-modal HAUV with vertical take-off and landing and hovering, horizontal flight and underwater glide functions - "Nezha" series. The newly developed "Nezha III (VTOL)" HAUV has 25-meter underwater navigation, 24-hour underwater silent submersible navigation, good air movement, and cross-media capabilities, and is currently the most extended underwater endurance of HAUVs publicly released at home and abroad. The "Nezha" series of HAUV will break through the limitations of the current autonomous underwater observation system and unmanned aerial vehicles in marine observation and sampling applications. As a result, they will be widely used in oceanography, engineering, and the military to carry out air, surface simultaneously, and underwater exploration applications in specific sea areas, significantly improving China's sea and air three-dimensional monitoring capabilities and levels.
"Nezha III (VTOL)" was tested in Qiandao Lake
Temperature profile observation data of a water area of Qiandao Lake
"Nezha III (VTOL)" underwater course adjustment trajectory
The research group has iteratively developed many "Nezha" prototypes in recent years. As a result, "Nezha III (VTOL)" adopts a new "fly-glide fusion" design concept: in order to solve the contradiction between air flight performance and the weight of underwater large-depth pressure-resistant waterproof structure, a new buoyancy attitude coupling control system is adopted; in order to balance underwater performance and air movement capability, a unique amphibious wing design method is adopted.
This article also reported in detail the results of the lake test of the prototype, the innovative design scheme of the "Nezha III (VTOL)" fly-slip fusion was verified, the dive of up to 25m depth was achieved, and the temperature-depth data was collected.
The paper links：
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rob.22063
