Research and Development of a New Propulsion Device of Ships Applied the Principle of Rowing"Ro"(Oriental Sweep)

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This research project began six years ago. First of all, the robot which rowed the third scale model of "Ro"automatically, was produced in order to make clear the hydrodynamic characteristicsof rowing "Ro"and was completed for three years. The results of tank tests of rowing "Ro"by this robot proved that the "Ro"was an excellent propulsion device to achieve high efficiency.The multi vertical blades advancing in a row right to left on the front line and left to right on the back line with an appropriate attack angle were set up in a mechanism as a new propulsion device. This was named"The lateral motion blades type propulsor."The tank tests of this new propulsor were carried out in the Ship Model Basin of Yokohama National University. As the results, it was found that this propulsor could not attain excellent performances hydrodynamically because of great losses of the driving system and the turning system of blades.The improvement was tried in many times so as to overcome the great torque and shocking vibration which occured during turning of blades at the end of driving lines. However, even in the last year of this project, the successful results have never been obtained yet but the efficiency of this new propulsor has been up to twenty percent. The driving and turning mechanism of blades will be renewed in the near future.