SDI Students (L-R)	· Javier Benavides · Bryant Chiu · Fernando Guerrero Rivera · Gerardo Salinas
Faculty Advisor(s)	· Dr. Yingchen Yang
Course Instructors	· Dr. Noe Vargas Hernandez · Mr. Greg Potter
College of Business and Entrepreneurship Collaboration	· Dr. Reto Felix (Instructor) · Annet Del Toro Villarreal · Hugo Gutierrez · AnaKaren Rios · Omar Rodriguez Perez · Mayra Varela

INDEX

WELCOME

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WE ARE TRYING TO SOLVE?

IMPORTANT TO KNOW

WHY IS THIS PROBLEM IMPORTANT?

OUR PROPOSED SOLUTION

FROM IDEA TO REALITY

PROTOTYPE EARLY AND OFTEN

FINAL PRODUCT

FUTURE WORK

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR DESIGN PROCESS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

FEEDBACK

WELCOME!

Welcome! We are Team # 8 “G.B.J.F. Engineering”, Fernando, Javier, Bryant, and Gerardo worked on this project during the Spring and Fall of 2021. Our project is titled Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. The problem we tackled was creating an AUV that could use marine renewable energies. We designed an AUV that will make use of the kinetic motion created by the waves of the ocean, as an energy supply. We hope that you enjoy this project as much as we did.

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WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WE ARE TRYING TO SOLVE?

While ocean robots have proven to be particularly useful in many applications they are limited by a crucial factor. In order to function submersed AUVs must carry an on-board energy source. AUVs are limited by the endurance provided by the energy source. Mission effectiveness is greatly impacted, time is lost when AUVs must be retracted to recharge. Additionally, to being time consuming, retrieval missions can be dangerous and affected by environment conditions.

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IMPORTANT TO KNOW

To better understand the problem, we conducted a background research on relevant topics, from this we learned the following:

AUV POWER SOURCES

The selection of the power source is the most important part when designing an AUV. A principal attribute when studying power sources is energy density (Whr/kg). Energy density is a typical comparison for power sources. AUV Power Sources can be broken down into three categories nuclear, combustion, and electrochemical.

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WHY IS THIS PROBLEM IMPORTANT?

“A successful wave powered AUV would open a world of exploration for hydrographic surveyors, pipeline inspectors, and ocean observers.”

Our main motivation to work on this AUV project is to provide help in military applications and commercial applications including: oil and gas industry, as well as marine life observation for research purposes.

· Military market: The United States Navy are one of the biggest users of AUVs in the entire world. The Navy will continue to expand their use of AUVs, with funding for AUV programs doubling in the last decade. Two main military roles are performed: maritime reconnaisance, undersea search and survey, and communications.

o Maritime reconnaisance

o Undersea search and survey

· Commercial market: The commercial market for AUVs continues to grow and expand in large part due to the cost savings the AUVs provide. The main focus for commercial AUV use is in the oil and gas industry. A lesser role comes from the research sector.

o Oil and gas industry

o Research

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OUR PROPOSED SOLUTION

The proposed solution is to create an AUV design which implements stators and a translator which will generate electrical energy using the mechanical movement of the waves and thus power the AUV. The capability of creating renewable energy, is considered an eco-friendly device that can help the budget of the customer. The AUV will be able to create energy in a continuous manner without having to wait for different periods of time.

Figure: Concept 1

Figure: Concept 2

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FROM IDEA TO REALITY

Once we defined a clear solution idea (i.e. concept), we applied our engineering knowledge to transform it into a real product. These were some of the important design challenges and how we approached each one of them:

· Being able to be submersed underwater

Use steel to build AUV, use polymers to build AUV, use more sophisticated materials such as carbon fiber.

· Observation

Applying a small security camera with low capacity for recording.

· Power Generation

Using waves to oscillate a spring system attached to a battery to charge.

· Accumulation of Power

Implement lithium batteries, known to be one of the longest lasting batteries in the market.

· Communication

Detection of large objects via use of a detection radar.

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PROTOTYPE EARLY AND OFTEN

Due to the distinct parts that would be required to assemble the AUV. The teams has found useful to work with CAD Software such as SolidWorks and NX. In order to have a better perspective of our final product and the required parts that the team will have to develop. As you can see in the images shown below, we have drafted the following prototypes:

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FINAL PRODUCT

Work in Progress

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FUTURE WORK

The team intends to create and publish an academic article after the project is finalized, mainly focused on the development of a system which allows the AUV to charge its batteries by means of the mechanical movement of the waves, in order to help in future research for the field of the AUV as well as to create helpful basis for marine future research. Furthermore, to get in touch with the different AUV manufacturing companies, in order to present the product, and possibly achieve an investment.

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IN CONCLUSION

Our Senior Design experience lead us to understand that the hydrodynamic geometries impact AUV speed and energy. The faster they complete their mission in shorter time, the more energy it will save. This will allow for more working hours with less use of a recharging source. Hydrodynamic geometries allow AUVs to reach higher speeds due to their low drag coefficient. The aluminum alloy is the most common materials use for AUVs, at approximately 55%. Regarding the method of energy harvesting, a mass spring damper system is our best option compared to the gyroscope method.

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REFERENCES

1. “Autonomous underwater vehicles,” MBARI, 23-May-2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.mbari.org/at-sea/vehicles/autonomous-underwater-vehicles/. [Accessed: 28-Jan-2021].

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LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR DESIGN PROCESS

We went through a meticulous design process to arrive to the final solution. The information in this page is a summary intended for the public. To learn about the project details, visit the DESIGN PROCESS page. To obtain access contact the course instructor.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The team received help from various persons, their help was critical to our success, we would like to acknowledge the help from Dr. Yingchen Yang, Dr. Noe Vargas, and Dr. Greg Potter

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