Development of a calculation power model of a vacuum automounting device

One of the ways to improve navigation safety during water transport operation is to develop automated devices and systems that reduce the number of tasks for workers. For example, the introduction of vessels with different levels of autonomy into production activities, capable of automatically monitoring the environment or delivering cargo, helps to reduce the size of the vessel due to the absence of a residential superstructure. On inland waterways, one of the limitations of the introduction of autonomous navigation is their safe passage through shipping passages — shipping locks. Mooring a vessel in a lock chamber is very labor-intensive and is usually performed by crew members of the vessel being locked for movable (floating hoops) or fixed (berthing bollards, bollards, hoops) mooring devices, the permissible loads of which are established in regulatory documents. Over the past 10 years, the authors have not found studies describing the results of measuring the loads on mooring devices and ropes arising from the movement of the vessel in the lock chamber. Another constraint to the implementation of autonomous shipping is the lack of requirements for auto-mooring devices that ensure the retention of vessels in the lock chamber. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to compare the standard and actual values of the load on mooring eyes and ropes for the theoretical calculation of the holding forces of the vacuum automooring device model, taking into account the operating conditions in the shipping lock chamber. The measurement results presented in the article were obtained in the course of the research work “Development of scientifically based recommendations for establishing hydraulic modes for filling and emptying the chambers of locks No. 1–8 of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Volga-Balt Administration” based on in-kind studies of the conditions of ship mooring in lock chambers” commissioned by the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport using a strain gauge installed in the mooring rope cut. As a result of the theoretical calculation of the holding force of the vacuum auto-mooring device, the holding forces of the vacuum gripper from the radius of one vacuum suction cup were obtained.