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.
Theseus: a cable-laying AUV
ISE Research is currently developing Theseus, a long-range AUV specifically designed to investigate technologies and techniques for deploying fiber optic cable on the seafloor in ice-covered waters. Previous sea trials with a test-bed AUV have demonstrated the feasibility of this type of mission. Prior to the operational deployment of Theseus, development is required in several key areas of sub-sea technology: vehicle design, energy storage, navigation, control, cable deployment, logistics and communications. Currently, system-level design of Theseus has been completed and detailed design is underway. This paper gives an overview of the Theseus AUV, outlines its specifications, and describes key technical problems related to cable laying.<<ETX>>