自主式水下滑翔機(Autonomous Underwater Glider,AUG)是一種適合蒐集大範圍水下水文資料的水下載具,其中水下滑翔機的滑翔原理,是利用內部的浮力引擎來控制壓載艙進水與排水,因而產生重浮力差以及浮心重心距離的改變,造成機體產生傾角以及潛航,並配合內部移重裝置或外部尾舵來改變浮心重心距離與入流角度,導致縱搖(Pitch)、橫搖(Roll)或平擺(Yaw)角度產生變化,使得水下滑翔機利用重浮力差與傾角變化所產生的速度與角度,讓裝置於機體兩側的機翼產生升力使之有前進的推力因而來達到水下滑翔機水下滑航的運動。 本研究之目的為開發出一套專門針對水下滑翔機設計需要的輔助計算電腦程式,其開發環境係架構於電腦輔助設計軟體Rhinoceros所提供的SDK(Software Development Kit),即軟體開發工具,利用此開發工具不僅可使用該繪圖軟體本身具有的功能,還可將多種程式軟體整合在一起如此可輸出多樣化的資訊,以達到協助研究水下滑翔機的設計人員來快速求得所需的參數(包括各組成物體元件體積、重量、質量、重心、浮心…等)並且自動產生設計人員所需的檔案如工程圖、三維幾何實體模型、Microsoft Excel圖表以及運動的動畫模擬,因而提高設計效率,減少相關幾何參數資料的手動輸入或計算所產生之錯誤,以達到縮短開發水下滑翔機的流程。
Autonomous underwater glider is a kind of underwater vehicles which is suitable for measuring and collecting large-scale underwater hydrographic information. The gliding principle of an underwater glider is being means of buoyancy engines to inside the glider control a ballast tank for intaking and expelling water. Thereby, difference between buoyancy and weight, and also difference in distance between center-of-buoyancy and center-of-gravity can be produced. These differences will result in an inclination and up-and-down motion of the fuselage. Furthermore, in cooperation with shifting and rotating of the internal moving weight and control of the operable rudder for producing pitch , roll and yaw motion. The purpose of this study is to develop a computer-aided design tool for an underwater glider. Rhino is a commercial CAD software which provides software development kit for building up a design tool to meet special purpose. One can use this development kit to connect with functions of Rhino, assemble different existing programs and export various information such as volume, mass, coordinates of center-of-buoyancy, and center-of-gravity, etc. Besides, the tool exports some files including engineering drawing, three dimensions solid model, Microsoft excel charts, and animation of simulating results for glider motion, etc. The designer can use this information to enhance efficiency for design work and reduce computation errors, so the time needed for design of an underwater glider can be shortened to a large extent.