BEARacuda

The BEARacuda 12th in the 17th RoboSub. BEARacuda is no longer active. BEARacuda sported a sheet aluminum frame similar in construction to the CATfish, but with additional bends for increased strength and a blue and red powder-coat finish. Four polycarbonate tubes house the main electronics rack, two batteries, and the hydrophone localization board. The main hull has been rotated 90 degrees for a narrower vehicle and extended 50% so that only one rack is required to contain all the electronics.

Several changes were made to enhance the reliability of the electronics. Battery capacity was doubled to 16 total amp-hours for approximately 400 watt-hours. The ethernet endcap from CATfish was replaced with a standard 8-pin SubConn connector for immediate access to the on-board computer. A power management board was created to integrate current and provide a battery state-of-charge estimate. The power, kill, and mission reed switches have been upgraded and passed through a low-pass filter and Schmitt trigger for very robust signals.

Software was written primarily in Java with a hardware interface script written in python. An agent is responsible for running hard-coded tasks, each of which provides several exit options for timeouts, successes, failures, and terminations. Subtasks can be run in parallel for maximum code reuse. OpenCV was used to identify objects such as path markers and buoys. An aggregate controller class allows multiple types of control loops to be integrated onto any output.

Vehicle Overview

STATUS: RETIRED

Dimensions: 28" x 38" x 18"

Dry weight: ~80 lbs.

Sensors:

• 2x Logitech C615PNI

• Corp. TRAX Digital Compass

• 250 kPa Pressure Transducer

• Passive Sonar Array

Runtime: ~1.5 hours

Awards

12th Place – RoboSub 17

Related Files

RoboSub Journal