Cornell AUVSI Competition Entry 2005
This paper presents the 2005 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) designed by the Cornell University AUV Team. This year's vehicle builds on the team's previous iterations and maintains the aspects that have proven to be successful in the past, including a dual hull structure, brushless motors, explicit separation of hardware by functionality, and flexible software. Significant improvements made this year include a modular sensor infrastructure, signal and power backplanes, enhanced power management, and improved vehicle control.
Modular hardware infrastructure for autonomous underwater vehicles
Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are taking on increasingly visible and valuable roles in oceanographic research institutions, the offshore industry, and the military (Podder et al., 2004 and Yongkuan, 2002). AUV research, especially at the university level, is hindered by the lack of flexible and affordable platforms suitable for a wide range of applications. This paper presents an electrical and mechanical infrastructure developed to improve the flexibility and modularity of research AUVs. External devices can be added or replaced with minimal vehicle modification. A power backplane offers built-in monitoring and switching for all electronic devices. A signal backplane allows new electronics to be quickly integrated into the existing system. Easily detachable segments make the entire system mechanically modular.
Structure and orientation control of organopolysilanes and their application to electronic devices
Abstract Molecular structure and packing of various organopolysilanes having symmetrical side-chains of alkyl substituents, such as poly(di-methyl silane), poly(di-ethyl silane), poly(di-propyl silane), poly(di-butyl silane), poly(di-pentyl silane), and poly(di-hexyl silane), are examined, and the method of orientation control of the polysilane thin film is proposed. The application of the evaporated film to the electro-luminescent device is also demonstrated.