Collision Modeling and Guide Cover Structure Optimization for UUV Docking

This paper focuses on the docking process of an underactuated Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) with a guide cover-type docking manipulator. Aiming at the collision issues during the docking process, a three-dimensional coordinate model of the collision process is established, and based on this, a collision force model for the UUV recovery process is developed. A dynamic simulation is conducted using the ADAMS physical simulation model to analyze the variation of collision forces under different attitudes during the UUV docking process. The simulation results are compared with the computed values to verify the effectiveness of the collision force model. In this paper, the influence of the curvature of the guide cover as well as the curvature distribution on the docking process is investigated using the magnitude of the collision force and the velocity at the end of the collision as the evaluation indexes. The results indicate that increasing the curvature of the contact points and reducing the curvature distribution can reduce the collision force and increase the final velocity after the collision. Subsequently, a multivariate nonlinear regression analysis is performed to establish the relationship between the maximum collision force and the final velocity, obtaining a target regression equation. Using a multi-objective optimization design approach and considering practical requirements, the optimal design parameters are determined, leading to the optimized guide cover curve. Comparison experiments before and after optimization show that, while the final velocity increase is small, the overall collision force is reduced by 26.48%, providing a foundation for the subsequent manipulator design.