[Daniel] sent us over to the blog for the Naval Academy’s Autonomous underwater vehicle entry for the AUVSI competition. You can follow along as they design, build, and test this years entry. It really looks like it would be fun to be the guy who gets to swim with them, like in the latest post in their blog. Their entry, named “Awkward turtle” can be seen above in orange, pictured with their 5th place winning previous entry.
using a pre-built waterproof case to house the brains is a good idea. fabricating your own would be a pain.
http://www.mil.ufl.edu/subjugator/index.html
The University of Florida has a pretty good track record when it comes to the AUVSI competition. Check out the Subjugator (3 time world champ).
PS: they build their own waterproof chassis…
Check out Stevens Institute
http://auvg6.wordpress.com/
Unlike other teams, USNA can not accept sponsors, and due to commitments to the Navy, does not have any team members who return from year to year.
I maintain AUVAC.org, where we aggregate AUV development blogs (under the resources section). If you’d like to add your feed to the mix, contact webmaster@auvac.org and I’ll be happy to set you up!
Building your own hull is much more fun:
http://johnwelborn.com/2007/02/03/senior-design-project/
I remember competing in the AUVSI competition last year, and I remember the USNA perching the submarine, the hull (A pelican box) open and working on the internals, and accidentally dropping the opened sub in the water. I hope you’ve solved that problem!
Different and more careful team this year.
Looks like Naval Academy’s control systems are going well, horizontal control in particular looks very stable while moving.
to bad there aren’t any videos showing their machine vision but I guess it still a bit early for that, god knows most of my team’s MV work will happen this summer as well :P
shameless self promotion:
ARISE Team AUV (will post our auv control systems test hopefully sometime after exams)
I look forward to seeing you all at the competition!