Periodic gait plans for locomotion on naturaludterrain by a submersible walking dredger/miner

摘要

Use of surface floating dredgers in deep inlandudreservoirs and continental shelves, either for dredging orudmining is restricted by several operational limitations andudmobilization problems. Ladder length is a majorudconstraint and in the absence of good approach roads,udtransportation of bigger surface floating dredgers toudinland areas is difficult. In shelf areas, dredging operationudis less precise due to currents, waves and winds. Use ofudsmall, modular comparatively less expensive submersibleuddredgers/ miners is a suitable solution to some of theudabove-mentioned problems. A collaborative researchudproject between Memorial University of Newfoundland,udCanada and Excavation & Equipment Manufacturing (P)udLtd., India was set up to develop, design, build and test audsmall prototype of a modular walking submersible dredgerudsuitable for deep inland reservoirs. The full-scale electrohydraulicallyudoperated prototype was remotely operatedudon land for all the full-scale prototype tests. This paperuddescribes the theoretical gait plans developed for theuddesigned vehicle to perform straight line and curvilinearudlocomotion on natural terrain. Representative resultsudshowing the comparisons between the theoretical andudexperimental results for the gait plans are presented.