Underwater Small Plane Potential for Narrow Area Detection-Using Piezoelectric Jet as Driving Units

Nowadays, the exploitation of marine resources is urgent, underwater plane as an important tool to explore the ocean have been paid more and more attention. However, it is difficult to meet the comprehensive requirements of high water pressure resistance, micro size, and low power consumption at the same time, which means that the existing vehicles are difficult to achieve long-term operation in the narrow and complex deep water environment. The piezoelectric jet drive can realize miniaturization, good antipressure ability, and simple control method, while the underactuated mode can reduce energy consumption and extend the endurance time. In this work, a piezoelectric jet microsize unit with high water pressure resistance is proposed based on piezoelectric drive, and a piezoelectric jet-driven underwater plane with low power consumption is designed. Its maximum stable straight-line velocity can reach 47.62 mm/s (0.397 BL/s). It can realize a variety of actions such as horizontal forward, floating forward, diving forward, and rotation, and its power consumption in horizontal motion is much lower than that of a fully actuated vehicle. This article will provide an important reference for the research of long-endurance vehicles that operate in deep diving and narrow area.