This paper presents the system design and development of a 6,000 meter depth-rated unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) for oceanographic research in Korea. The UUV system consists of two vehicles: a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) ‘HEMIRE’ and an underwater launcher ‘HENUVY’ cooperated with the ROV. This paper describes the functions and specifications of HENUVY and HEMIRE, respectively, and presents the design process of the vehicles in terms of mechanical and electric system design. This paper also introduces the design of a surface control unit, configuration of a manipulator controller, and measurement equipment of the vehicles.
The Ocean Exploration System Research Division of KORDI-MOERI (Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute - Maritime and Ocean Engineering Research Institute) is developing a deep-sea unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) for use in depths down to 6,000 meters that is sponsored by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MOMAF). The study is now in Phase V of a 6-year project that will be terminated in April 2007. The primary research objective of this project is to create a scientific research infrastructure for studying deep-sea environment and for enabling oceanographic data surveying, deep-sea sampling for geophysics and marine biology, and underwater structure maintenance (Lee and Hong, 2001). KORDI-MOERI has cooperated with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) for system design and the Japan Agency for Maritime-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) for pressure test the UUV.
The UUV consists of an underwater launcher "HENUVY" and an ROV "HEMIRE". The configurations of two bodies are similar to JASON II from WHOI (2006), VICTOR 6000 from IFREMER (2006), and Kaiko from JAMSTEC (Mikagawa et al., 1999). The launcher mainly serves as a depressor to decouple the ROV from the motion of a mother ship caused by ocean disturbances; it also supports and monitors the ROV during deep-sea operations.
