Mechatronic design of a miniature underwater robot for swarm operations

Due to extreme and unpredictable conditions, oceanic missions are still a persistent challenge in robotics. With the aim of improving decision autonomy and robustness against unforeseen circumstances, the EU-funded CoCoRo project is developing a cognitive swarm of underwater robots. Swarm and cognition algorithms will be studied and validated with a large number of miniaturized and affordable AUVs, named Jeff, whose custom mechanical design is described in this paper. Jeff is conceived for high-mobility in 3D cluttered environments and has distributed sensors for multi-directional perception and communication. The propulsion and the buoyancy systems are designed with watertight and energetically efficient solutions to improve system reliability and energetic autonomy. The manuscript also describes the design of a docking system that allows Jeff to passively align and connect to a submerged docking station for battery charging.