Design of submerged vehicles with improved mobility

The design of vehicles with improved mobility is one of the traditional challenges faced by the vehicle designers. This activity becomes more and more difficult when applied to vehicles that move on terrains whose parameters are knmvn with a large uncertainity. This is the typical case of seabed soil, whose variability and specific characteristic are rarely known to the desired level of detail. Many aspects are peculiar to the design of this type of vehicles: .. some parameters of the traditional traction formulas change their relative effect on the final result; .. the possibility of a variable actual weight per unit of area introduces a new degree of freedom in the design; .. many parameters of the soil can only be estimated, thus forcing an approacrl based on "sensitivity to changes" analysis' j The paper deals with the studies carried out on the definition of a design technique able to guide the design of subsea vehicles with improved mobility, starting from an investigation of the various approaches found in literature and comparing their results when applied to the typical conditions of a submerged vehicle. A vehicle was actually manufactured during last year and operated in "tt"le last few months. The experiences gathered during its design and the performance shown in practice compared to those expected by design are considered a valuable aid in defining a better approach to the improvement of the subsea mobility .