Design of an autonomous underwater vehicle to evaluate the blazed array sonar and simultaneous localization and mapping algorithms

Abstract

This thesis has investigated aspects of the design of a new highly maneuverable Autonomous Underwater Vehicle - the XAUV. The overall goal for the design of this vehicle is to create a small, highly maneuverable AUV that can perform autonomous ship hull inspection. Our work towards this goal was targeted to three different aspects: (1) contributions to the conceptual design of the overall vehicle, (2) specification and acquisition of the electronic components of the vehicle, including its main CPU, and (3) mechanical design of selected components, including the ship's hull, servo-controlled fin system, and blazed array sonar nose cone. These contributions have helped to improve and realize the design of the first prototype XAUV, which is expected to be completed in May, 2007, through the work of other members of the design team.