SubjuGator 2011

Abstract: Modern autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) research is moving towards multi-agent system integration and control. Many university research projects, however, are restricted by cost to obtain even a single AUV platform. An affordable, robust AUV design is presented with special emphasis on modularity and fault tolerance, guided by previous platform iterations and historically successful AUV designs. Modularity is obtained by the loose coupling of typical AUV tasks such as navigation, image processing, and interaction with platform specific hardware. Fault tolerance is integrated from the lowest hardware levels to the vehicle’s mission planning frame- work. Major system design features including electrical infrastructure, mechanical design, and software architecture are presented. Application to the 14th annual AUVSI Robosub competition are addressed.

Note: RTI Connext DDS is used as the primary middleware. The paper includes a description on how DDS is used.