Design of a Prototype Automatic Push Corer for Remotely Operated Vehicles

摘要

This paper presents a prototype automatic push corer (APC), developed by the Institute of Undersea Technology (IUT) at National Sun Yat-sen University, which could be integrated with a remotely operated vehicle for seafloor sediment sampling without the need of using manipulator systems. The design concept of the IUT prototype APC is to decouple the operation of sediment sampling into a rotational motion and a linear motion. The IUT prototype APC has four main components, including a vertical sampler, a rotating tube changer, an actuator, and a protective frame. The sampling and tube-changing functions of the IUT prototype APC were successfully tested at a fishing port through a standalone version of the APC.