Micro Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Concept for Distributed Data Collection

This works presents an analysis of a concept micro autonomous underwater platform. The focus variable in this study is size: what are the size limits for a micro-AUV, and what design parameters require the greatest effort to fulfil at this size? The target design space is a robot smaller than 1 cubic inch in size and less than $50 in cost. Preliminary results indicate that the electronics, battery, and sensor subsystems are not limited by this constraint, with the exception of sonar. Mechanical design at this scale is feasible, but is limited primarily by the effectiveness of propulsion and free volume required for adequate buoyancy