Hallin Marine reports that the Hallin-sponsored BumbleBee Autonomous Underwater Vehicle project team has triumphed in the Singapore AUV Challenge 2014. The event was held at the Singapore Polytechnic 14-16 March. BumbleBee was the only team to complete the entire course.
“This strong finish is extremely encouraging,” says team leader Thomas Ng . “The 2014 team included many new members who had to cope with a steep learning curve and high expectations. I am honoured to lead these students who are not just technically outstanding but passionate and dedicated towards a common goal. We now go on to compete for our second year in the San Diego AUVSI Robosub contest which will be held from 28 July to 3 August.”
Mechanical work on the new vehicle commenced last October. Upgrades include an anodised aluminium frame and custom-built circuit boards to optimise power, sensors and actuators. A more robust algorithm using phase difference was used for acoustic localisation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zQN_ZnHpYGU
After 5 months of preparations by the mechanical and electrical team, the software team tested the AUV underwater for more than 200 hours to meet the increased challenges of the 2014 course. 10 minutes of competition run time is allocated to completing tasks autonomously. Using computer vision, the AUV followed a black line, moved towards a bucket, knocked down a flare and surfaced into the ending zone under acoustic localisation.
The mechanical and electrical team are now working to integrate a lighter Doppler Velocity Log, new cameras and acoustic equipment. The software team will test the vision algorithms for the San Diego Robosub challenge course.