I'm thinking of constructing an AUV as an engineering project. I will be interning with an underwater robotics lab at a local university that designs their own AUVs so I want to be able to apply what I learn from that experience. I know this community is for UAVs but I figure its still in the same field =PSome of the main themes/design goals I have been thinking about are- Energy autonomy (hopefully the ability to remain underwater/at sea indefinitely)- Small size (3-4 ft long)- Macroscopic navigation (I heard this was a problem for AUVs, havent done the research though)- Cost (duh)Can you guys think of some rough brainstormed solutions for these problems? I haven't done the research on feasibility/whether it has already been done, but I've been thinking about:- A retractable pod that floats to the surface, has a GPS receiver and solar panels to recharge batteries during the day. AUV releases this pod every so often to calculate position deltas and direction of travel (while underwater and "blind", itll be trying to estimate where its going)- Some kind of built in water wheel that will spin and drive a generator as the AUV moves through the water? So as it is expending energy to move it is also gaining some back (no idea if this is even possible/feasible)- Using a cell phone as a GPS/wireless communication would also be pretty neat, although I'm not sure how difficult this would beCan anyone suggest major problems with current AUV design that I could maybe try and design a solution for, or maybe ideas for possible solutions to my current problems? (or any ideas that you feel would be cool to include in an AUV design)Thanks!
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Sounds like an interesting project. As far as the idea of using a water wheel to regain energy, if you give the energy to move the vehicle, then harvest the energy back you are only wasting energy. In an ideal situation (assuming everything is 100% efficient) you could regain just as much energy as you exerted to overcome the extra drag of the water wheel, but in practice you would be losing quite a bit of energy. But assuming you are not exerting energy to move the vehicle, then it could be useful, but to get any decent amount of energy out of it you would need it to be rather big. Which then causes problems when you try to move it the AUV yourself (with your own power) because of the extra drag of having a big water wheel. Overall it doesn't seem like a very practical idea.
As far as using cell phones for communication, those would only work within the range of a cell tower, unless you use a satellite phone. So if you're not using a satellite phone then your range would be limited to staying within cell tower's range.
For energy a combination of Lithium Polymer batteries with solar cells and a bouy seems like a good combination, or you may be able to harvest thermal energy from the ocean (I don't know much about it, but I know its been done).
Simon, look into underwater gliders. They use very little power so you could run for days or weeks without having to recharge. They are rather slow moving, however, and don't do so well in currents.
I would imagine you could do some really interesting things with a winged design and an air tank to refill the ballast tanks. A small tank could go a long way if the sub was carefully designed.
The deployable surface pod idea, pretty reasonable, that's one of the ways submarines handle the problem, although it mostly for radio communication. But, the water wheel idea... that's a sub-class of perpetual motion machine, you can't build anything like that. It doesn't work...
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
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As far as using cell phones for communication, those would only work within the range of a cell tower, unless you use a satellite phone. So if you're not using a satellite phone then your range would be limited to staying within cell tower's range.
For energy a combination of Lithium Polymer batteries with solar cells and a bouy seems like a good combination, or you may be able to harvest thermal energy from the ocean (I don't know much about it, but I know its been done).
You might want to look at this project for ideas.
http://www.cormp.org/glider/index.php
I would imagine you could do some really interesting things with a winged design and an air tank to refill the ballast tanks. A small tank could go a long way if the sub was carefully designed.
Thanks,
Neal
The deployable surface pod idea, pretty reasonable, that's one of the ways submarines handle the problem, although it mostly for radio communication. But, the water wheel idea... that's a sub-class of perpetual motion machine, you can't build anything like that. It doesn't work...