Design of a Wheel-Pulp Multiplexed Amphibious Robot for Offshore Floating Photovoltaic System Application

The maintenance of offshore floating photovoltaic (PV) system poses considerable challenges. This article proposes a novel amphibious robot with a wheel-and-leg hybrid design, which combines the advantages of wheeled and legged robots and allows for flexible operation on land and underwater. The robot structure was modeled using SolidWorks software, and the shape and size parameters of the waterproof shell were compared and analyzed using the Ansys fluid simulation software to determine a streamlined elliptical shell with small fluid resistance and its corresponding dimensions. The robot control system was composed of an Arduino Mega 2560 as the main controller, waterproof brushless motors, servo control board, attitude displacement sensor, and Bluetooth transparent module, with data transmission facilitated through communication protocols, such as serial ports and inter-integrated circuit (IIC). Experimental results demonstrated that the robot can stably operate in different land and underwater environments, confirming the accuracy of the fluid simulation conclusions and verifying the effectiveness of the proportion integration differentiation (PID) algorithm.