AUVx

The autonomous underwater vehicle AUV^X is designed as a miniaturized exploration and research vehicle. Its shape is particularly adapted to the requirements of the EurEx project: with its small diameter it fits into the underwater vehicle Leng. In the EurEx context, the AUV^X must be able to locate the μGliders, which act as reference points, and subsequently return to the starting point. Furthermore it is supposed to do near field exploration. Therefore the vehicle is equipped with a variety of different sensors. In addition, a camera allows to use image recognition algorithms under water. These properties make the system perfectly fit for its tasks in the EurEx mission scenario. Furthermore, in the project DAEDALUS the AUV^X serves as a demonstrator for using the DAEDALUS specific trackingtag in a robotic context. To maintain a high degree of energy efficiency while doing underwater locomotion, the hull was hydro-dynamically optimized. Another unique feature are the magnetically coupled thrusters which ensure that the electronics inside the thrusters is hermetically protected against the surrounding water. The AUV^X can also be operated remotely as a hybrid ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) with an optical communication or copper wire cable.

Navigation is based on fusing data coming from the IMU, a mathematical model of the system and a tag detection which was implemented on the Raspberry Pi Zero using both OpenCV and ROS.