Research Progress and Prospect of Water Hydraulic Manipulator for Underwater Operation

Water hydraulics have board, promising application and development prospects in ocean exploration, marine resources exploitation, and other fields because of its superiorities underwater. Underwater manipulator is an important equipment to perform underwater tasks. By integrating water hydraulic transmission and the underwater manipulator, the complexity of the underwater vehicle-manipulator system can be reduced, and the functionality can be uplifted. By expounding the structural characteristics, research progress and commercialization status, the pros and cons of different driving power and its influence toward the performance and design point of manipulators are detailed which come the conclusion that water hydraulic transmission is the optimal solution for underwater tools. As key technical issues that need to be solved in the design of water hydraulic manipulator, the research progress of tribology and lubrication, materials, dynamics modelling, and motional control are analysed and summarized. Finally, the development trend of underwater manipulator is prospected, and the conclusion is given to provide a reference for relevant research.