Abstract
A crane is typically used as a means to lift and load equipment or materials. A surface vessel uses a towed object for underwater activity. Such a mechanism for dropping and lifting of equipment is necessary, and is called an overboarding unit. The present study is focused on the overboarding unit used for a crane structure. This paper deals with new overboarding mechanism design and GA-based $MATLAB^{(R)}$ optimization. By using a quadrilateral link mechanism, it is possible to set the constraint function for optimizing the GA method. The optimization with $MATLAB^{(R)}$ is followed by the $SolidWorks^{(R)}$ simulation and verification. When applying the proposed mechanism, the operator is expected to have a big advantage in safety and efficiency of operations. Furthermore, the technology developed in this study will be helpful in similar circumstances and in the proposed mechanism.
