I am building a custom cylindrical AUV with a 3 thruster configuration (single vertical), and am wanting to upload some waypoints to the vehicle so that it can run this path untethered. For now I just want to get the autopilot working, then later I want to figure out how to get recordings and sonar scans to onboard storage to access after it returns from the mission.
I have been lurking the forum for a bit now, and have seen a bunch of relevant information proving this can be done, but at different maturation levels of ardusub and different types of now discontinued hardware. To make the design serviceable, I want to use current off the shelf components.
So before committing to some large purchases, I wanted to get some feedback on if I can get the proposed AUV mission capability from the navigator controller, current ardusub/blueOS release and a Cerulean USBL. Am I missing something critical here?
Hi @commandorondo -
Welcome to the forums, thanks for coming out of the shadows!
That should indeed be (somewhat) possible! The 3 thruster configuration will potentially be tricky, unless you mount the thrusters in a way that matches an existing frame configuration, or build a custom version of the Ardusub firmware…
Maybe the “simplerov” frame will work for your vehicle?
Such a configuration is likely to be much harder to drive and collect good data with compared to vehicles with more thrusters…
While I’ve seen users operate without a tether via DVL, I’m not sure this is possible with the USBL from Cerulean, as you need a pathway for the position estimates captured on the topside receiver to reach the vehicle - this is typically the tether. Operating without a tether would require an acoustic modem, or the use of only a DVL…
Yes I was planning on using the “simplerov” frame preset.
I was under the impression that the USBL beacon could be submerged off the ground station, and the receiver be on the vehicle to provide the vehicle with coordinates. I am not locked on to any specific piece of hardware, so if the DVL is more appropriate for this application, I can shift over to the Tracker 650 DVL.
Hi @commandorondo -
The USBL receiver on the surface can calculate the position of the transmitter on the vehicle, but without a tether there isn’t a way to send that position information! (unless you used an acoustic modem?)
I do see the documentation shares that you can flip this, and have the transmitter at the surface and the receiver on the vehicle, but you still need a tether connection to send GPS data if you want to use this and not operate with the origin at 0,0.
