Method and device for operating an underwater vehicle

46 in the pressure difference 21 can also be constructed with a proportional and integral-action as well as, if appropriate, a differential component, although the latter can also be omitted for the purpose of stabilizing the regulating circuits behavior.

• Connected downstream of the controller 51 is a drive assembly 53 whose task is to convert the regulating signal 52 of the lower-level controller 51 into drive signals 54, 55 for the actuating devices 56, 57 of the air control valves 14, 17.
• As already mentioned, it is necessary in this case to ensure that the two valves 14, 17 are never open at the same time, since otherwise the compressed air 20 would escape unused into the boat's atmosphere 2. For this purpose, each of the two valves 14, 17 is assigned a valve position sensor whose output signals 58, 59 are fed back to the drive assembly 53. There, they can be used by an interlocking assembly 60 for the purpose of not releasing a valve opening setpoint 61, 62 derived from the controller output signal 52 until the respective other valve 14, 17 has already previously been definitively closed as shown by the relevant check-back signal 58, 59.
• Furthermore, the valve opening setpoint 61, 62 generated in such a way is not connected directly to the actuating device 56, 57 of the relevant valve 14, 17, but fed as setpoint to a valve position controller 63, 64 that also receives, in addition, the check back signal 58, 59 of the relevant valve position sensor. From this, the valve position controller 63, 64 can determine the deviation in the current valve position 58, 59 with reference to the valve opening setpoint 61, 62 originating from the interlocking assembly 60, and use a fixed regulating function to generate appropriate drive signals 54, 55 for the actuating device 56, 57 of the relevant valve 14, 17. It is thereby possible always to be able to observe the desired valve position value independently of whether the valves exhibit deviating properties owing to aging, corrosion or other influences. If, in addition to a proportional component, the lower-level valve position controllers 63, 64 also obtain an integral-action component, this ensures that in the stationary state the actual valve positions 58, 59 correspond to the prescribed position setpoint 61, 62 and so the higher-level controller 51 for the rate of change in the pressure difference 21 can assume that its controller output signal 52 is impressed on the air control valves 14, 17. Aging phenomena in the valves or other devices are therefore ruled out, and the regulating circuit 26 according to the invention operates over many years in an extremely reliable fashion.
• Discrete electronic modules operating in an analog fashion can be used for the various assemblies of the regulating system 26, but it is also possible alongside this to implement one, a plurality or all the signal processing assemblies as a computer program in the data processing installation. In such a case, the mostly analog signals of the sensors 21, 36, 40, 58, 59 and also the setpoints 25, 43, provided by means of potentiometer, for example, can be digitized via analog-to-digital converters and then entered in a bitwise fashion. The output signals of the valve position controllers 63, 64, for example, can then be converted with the aid of digital-to-analog converters into corresponding voltage levels that are then adapted to the actuating devices 56, 57 in terms of power by means of downstream amplifiers.