NAVSEA Robosub Competition

The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) sponsors an annual competition for autonomous robotic submarines (Robosubs). The competition is hosted in San Diego, CA, and challenges engineering skills across multiple disciplines. The competition team brings together engineers from across the Palouse, but this page highlights the efforts of the University of Idaho Capstone Design team.

Problem Definition
Our main goal for the year is to design and produce a working, autonomous submarine capable of completing specified goals and tasks while meeting club and competition needs and requirements

Background
Launched in 1997 and co sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the goal of Robosub is to advance development of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) by challenging new generations of engineers to perform realistic missions in an underwater environment. The competition is open to high school and college teams from around the world and is held each year at the U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific's TRANSDEC Anechoic pool in San Diego, CA.

Design Objectives
The Autonomous Submarine must be able to complete numerous tasks designated by the competition.

These tasks include:  Going through a starting gate Navigating from task site to task site on a course using visual and audio cues Dropping markers at specified locations Picking up, carrying, and dropping specified objects Accurately deploying torpedoes at targets Completing physical puzzles using a manipulative arm  How well each task is completed goes towards the overall team score for the competition. Other scoring can be attributed to subjective scoring.

These tasks include:  Team Website</li> Technical merit (Journal)</li> Written Style (Journal)</li> Tech accomplishments</li> Craftsmanship</li> Team Uniform</li> Team Video</li> Discretionary Static Points</li> </ul>

Projects
  Sub Stand The submarine stand will make for better presentation and easier repairs/modifications. The stand is intended to both hold the sub and allow the user to rotate it along a central axis running parallel to the electrical components bay. This should be fairly easy to accomplish since it is fairly similar to an engine stand. This project will be completed by first examining current device that perform similarly to this one. If a device is readily available that can be modified, this option will be explored first. If not, the device will be engineered similarly, but customized for our particular needs. </li>  Camera Waterproofing The cameras selected by the other teams will be mounted to the sub and waterproofed by the mechanical engineering team. They will need to be mounted such that they will perform as required for the competition, but do not interfere with other devices. Depending on the cameras selected, the mechanical engineering team will first search for predesigned and waterproof certified cases. If no such cases are available, the mechanical engineering team will design cases that will be capable of being placed underwater to the max depth of the arena. Mounting will be designed accordingly to work with the case </li>  Additional Battery Tube Make an additional waterproof carrying tube for the sub’s battery which allows for hot swapping. This saves the team critical time that would otherwise be wasted with the monotonous activity of taking out and replacing the battery inside its waterproof casing. </li>  Front and Bottom Claw Systems Design and manufacture both front and bottom claws for the sub that will operate using pneumatics. We want to put multiple less robust claws on the bottom so that we have the opportunity to grab more than one object at a time. It’s most likely that the front and bottom claws will function in the same way the only difference being the gauge of the material used to make the claws and the size of the actuators. </li>  New Pneumatic Housing Currently we only have one system running off of air. We are planning on switching both of the claws, forward and bottom, to pneumatics. To do this we will need a new pneumatic housing to hold all of the required components. Not only does the size of the tube need to change, but also location. </li>  Electronics Bracket The current 3d printed brackets allows for too much of the electronic piece to be open to the environment. This causes a problem for other electronics due to the majority of the piece being exposed while electricity is running through it. A new design is needed to fully house the piece while only allowing the pins on the top to be exposed. </li>  Marker Dropper The current marker dropper system on the submarine is integrated into the forward claws. This year we would like to separate the two systems so neither relies upon the other. We want all of our systems to work independently of one another. This should allow us to build specific designs which alternatively may help increase the accuracy and speed of each. Markers must be expendable. </li>  Bouyancy Confirm the new volume of the submarine to determine 0.5% of total mass and buoyancy. Important because “All vehicles must be buoyant by at least one half of one percent (0.5%) of their mass when they have been shut off through the kill switch.” </li> <li> Hydrophone Bracket Since the Robosub project requires students from both University of Idaho and Washington State University to work together in producing an autonomous submarine, it is easy to see how a problem would arise in submarine possesion. Instead of having to leave the submarine at WSU so the Electrical Engineers could test the hydrophone system, we will create a mock-up of the front end of the sub which includes brackets to hold the hyrophones so we can keep the sub at the University of Idaho to further our progress on different projects. </li> <li> Computer Vision The Robosub's vision components are being redesigned from the ground up to include dynamic filter tree systems to improve aquatic object recognition. The vision will be an area with constant room for improvement, however the direct goals are to successfully identify various shapes and sizes of colored objects in a pool, regardless of interference surface light. </li> <li> Artificial Intelligence The artificial intelligence needed for the Robosub to complete tasks requires a fresh implementation of mission/task controllers. These systems will correctly prioritize and communicate actions back to the rest of the submarine through the network communications hub. </li> <li> Movement Logic The movement systems rely upon 'fuzzy logic' so as to keep the Robosub's movement responses smooth and consistent. It must be able to keep consistent depth despite natural buoyancy while responding to the AI's requests for movement in a timely and controlled fashion. </li> </ul>

Specifications
Filler Text

Project Learning
Dependent upon major design decisions NOTE: None made to date

Document Archive
[[Media:2014_NavseaRobosub_ClientInterview.pdf|Client Interview]]