• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.253-260
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• 2015

There are many efforts to mechanize the process for underwater port construction due to the severe and adverse working environment. This paper presents an underwater construction robot to level rubbles on the seabed for port construction. The robot is composed of a blade and a multi-functional arm to flatten the rubble mound with respect to the reference level at uneven terrain and to dig and dump the rubbles. This research analyzes the kinematics of the blade and the multi-functional arm including track and swing motions with respect to a world coordinate assigned to a reference depth sensor. This analysis is conducted interfacing with the position and orientation sensors installed at the robot. A hydraulic control system is developed to control a track, a blade and a multi-functional arm for rubble leveling work. The experimental results of rubble leveling work conducted by the robot are presented in land and subsea. The working speed of the robot is eight times faster than that of a human diver, and the working quality is acceptable. The robot is expected to have much higher efficiency in deep water where a human diver is unable to work.