A modular autonomous underwater vehicle for environmental sampling: System design and preliminary experimental results

A small-size autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for underwater environmental sampling is developed. Example applications include bottom mapping using a sidescan sonar, and thermocline tracking using the conductivity-temperature-depth sensor. The AUV has a modular mechanical, electronic and software design which allows for a simple integration of payload sensors selected for different applications. It consists of five sections: three basic sections, one application section, and one optional section. The hardware architecture for the AUV has been designed to achieve a common electrical and mechanical interface between the different sections. The modular software development of the platform is based on the MOOS-IvP architecture. A lake experiment has been performed to test navigation, autopilot and environmental data recording capabilities of the system.