Recently, a postgraduate research team led by Professor Wang Gang from the National Key Laboratory of Intelligent Marine Vehicles Technology at the College of Shipbuilding Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, published its latest research findings in the internationally renowned journal Nature Communications. The paper is titled “A Maneuverable Underwater Vehicle for Near-seabed Observation.”

The newly developed robot overcomes the limitations of conventional underwater vehicles, which are easily affected by sediment disturbance during near-seabed observation. It enables environmental observation at a centimeter-level distance from the seabed.

Harbin Engineering University is the sole affiliated institution of the paper. Professor Wang Gang is the sole corresponding author. Doctoral students Liu Kaixin and Ding Mingxuan are co-first authors. Other authors include postgraduate students Pan Biye, Yu Peiye, Lu Dake, Chen Siwen, and Zhang Shuo.

As an important technological tool for marine exploration, underwater vehicles play a key role in fields such as ocean resource exploration. The research team found that existing underwater robots face many challenges when operating in complex seabed terrain. Wheeled and legged robots are often limited by rugged terrain, while hovering robots can easily disturb seabed sediments during operation, reducing visibility and affecting task performance.

Facing the contradiction between robot maneuverability and seabed disturbance, the team started from the fundamental design of underwater robots. Through innovative structural design, environmental perception technology, and motion control methods, they proposed a new approach to improving the mobility performance of underwater robots.

The maneuverable underwater vehicle adopts an engineering-oriented design approach. Through a unique propulsion configuration, the robot optimizes the wake distribution during upward movement, thereby minimizing disturbance to seabed sediments. The team also used precise model identification technology and a low-noise angular acceleration feedback system to obtain the robot’s dynamic characteristics and monitor external disturbances in real time.

Experiments showed that the proposed algorithm can effectively withstand an instantaneous impact caused by the falling of a heavy object equivalent to 30% of the robot’s own weight, ensuring stable motion in near-seabed environments. To deal with complex seabed terrain, the team developed a trajectory-tracking algorithm that considers attitude constraints, enabling the vehicle to flexibly adjust its posture and better adapt to changes in seabed terrain.

Founded in 2010, Nature Communications is a multidisciplinary scientific journal under the Nature Portfolio, covering all areas of academic research. It focuses on influential research achievements across various scientific fields and is widely recognized by scholars at home and abroad. It is also ranked as a CAS Q1 Top Journal.

Paper link: https://rdcu.be/d1EuP