Dynamic modeling and simulation of the MUN Explorer autonomous underwater vehicle with a fuel cell system

Abstract

The actual power system of the MUN Explorer Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) uses 11 Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries as a main energy source. The batteries are directly connected into the BLDC motor to run the MUN Explorer for the desired operating sequence. This paper presents a dynamic model of the MUN Explorer AUV including a fuel cell system to run under the same operating conditions as suggested by its manual. A PI controller was applied into the dynamic model to maintain the operating conditions such as motor speed, DC bus voltage and the load torque, due to its advantages and simplicity for tuning technique. The MUN Explorer AUV dynamic model with a fuel cell is a proposed system to increase the power capacity, it is better to use a simple controller to see the system behaviors. The simulation of the entire system dynamics model along with the proportional-integral (PI) controller is done in MATLAB / Simulink. The simulation results are included in the paper. The DC bus voltage is measured at 48 V, and the motor speed is 20 (rad/s), which is equivalent to 190 (rpm). The power profile of the fuel cell and battery are presented and plotted against time. The PI controller gives satisfactory results in terms of maintaining the same operating conditions of the MUN Explorer AUV with a fuel cell.