Multi-mission underwater vehicle “OTOHIME” and its control system

JAMSTEC developed some new underwater vehicles. One of them is “OTOHIME”. Because it was designed as a multi-mission type, it has not only the cruising ability but also the working ability through its skid is exchanged or desorbed. In order it to perform various missions, its control system was newly developed as a multi-CPU control unit. The control system is mainly composed of seven CPUs and they are connected to each other with an Ether-network. And each CPU executes some different processes and controls some different devices which are installed into it, respectively. Thus the control system can realize the load distribution of a CPU, the trouble detection of the system, the function compensation and the self-restoration owing to the information sharing applying the Ether-network. Now, sea trials were carried out in order to verify the performance of some new technologies which have been already applied into it. And then the utility of the control system was also confirmed.