Comprehensive Design Tool for Sizing and Simulation of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

An important issue in the preliminary design of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) is the selection of the optimal dimensions for the vehicle (sizing). These dimensions are dependent on the characteristics of the mission, the operating environment and the chosen technology. This paper presents a computer-based design-tool, which integrates all major design parameters to allow an efficient and rapid trade-off analysis between various options, for example different battery types, etc. In order to carry out fast modelling, different types of battery, fuel cell and semi-fuel cell options to power the AUV are pre-programmed in the dimensioning module and can be selected by the designer. An integral part of the vehicle design is sustainability and this can be determined by performing a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on the vehicle. LCA refers to the compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. For this purpose the SimaPro^reg system is used to model a modular AUV as a function of its external dimensions and the type of power supply. When the user is satisfied with the designed vehicle, the program can calculate the hydrodynamic variables of the vehicle and load these variables into the vehicle simulation package (DSTO V-Sim).