Team 2 "Yellow Submariners"
A diverse mix of people
but mostly East-Asians

Submarine design concepts

Cornell autonomous underwater vehicle design concepts

Active Control Craft

mpeg animation

Features

• 2 main thrusters, 2 depth thrusters, 2 small stability thrusters

Pros

• Provides active control over full 6-degrees of freedom - maximum control flexibility

Cons

• Many motors contained within vehicle, increasing heat, electromagnetic interference

Towing module

at speed mpeg animation holding at depth mpeg animation

Features

• 2 azimuth thrusters mounted on a towing module
• 2 speed modes:
  
  1. high speed emphasizes stability
  2. low speed emphasizes maneuverability
• T-tail to control rear of body
• possible to implement some form of body vorticity control thrust: left and right thrusters alternate running at full thrust to swing entire body back and forth to attempt to produce additional thrust from tail fins
• downwards lift produced by fast rushing water under the body, then by vortex interaction downstream

Pros:

• Towed module can have arbitrary, flexible shape. Easily detachable or interchangeable.
• Keeps noisy engines/batteries completely separate from the sensitive electronics in the craft.
• Simplified vehicle dynamics: point the tow module in some direction, and the rest of the craft will follow

Cons:

• involves complex sensor calculations since orientation of vehicle won't stay constant

Double hull

mpeg animation

Features

• catamaran hull - high stability
• dual thrust-vectored pump jets
• differential control in one plane
• water/air reservoirs allow adjustable differential buoyancy:
  high for vertical orientation
  equal for free rolling dive
• variations: add another thrust-vectored pump jet on the connecting strut to keep craft at depth horizontally

Pros:

• "Flies" through water
• Allows for better differential sensing (visual, sonar, etc.)
• Each module can be almost identical

Cons:

• a challenge to control

Links to existing designs and technologies:

• http://www.auvsi.org/auvsicc/uuv.htm The main AUV competition site
• http://www.rov.net/ The ROV site
• http://arl.stanford.edu/projects/underwater_robots/index.html Underwater robotics, many good links
• Vorticity control propulsion
  
  Word on operational efficiency is pending from several research groups...
• Thrust-vectored pump jets
  
  
• http://www.modelersboatyard.com/shipsnthings/ ship hobby site
• http://home.t-online.de/home/subspec/ German sub hobbyist site
• http://www.acim.usl.edu/~maja/AUV/AUV-list.html