CptS 421/423 – Software Design Project I /II Fall 2015 – Spring 2016

Title: “Robosub "

Sponsors: Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NAVSEA) at Keyport, WA
This abstract was written by Sakire Arslan Ay and Patrick Pedrow (senior design instructors in the WSU School of EECS)

Abstract.
This team will design and construct the software for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)
with which the Robosub Club of the Palouse (http://auv.eecs.wsu.edu/) will compete in the
“19th International Robosub Competition” during summer 2016. Under the umbrella of
Robosub Club, the CptS senior design team will work alongside the EE/CptE senior design
team, the University of Idaho Mechanical Engineering team, and group of Robosub
volunteers to collaboratively design and build an AUV. The final AUV should accomplish a
common set of mission requirements including (but are not limited to): 1) Maintain a
consistent depth/heading/speed; 2) Move in response to sensor data; 3) Determine bearing
to an acoustic source; 4) Visually identify lines/boxes/lights; 5) Drop a marker; and/or 6)
Pick up an object. The design is not required to accomplish all of these tasks and the team
will consult the NAVSEA mentor on which task(s) to adopt. Development of the underwater
system requires knowledge of multiple engineering fields, as well as effective organizational
and execution skills. The three senior design teams must work collaboratively with each
other and with the Robosub Club to integrate various subsystems into two existing fully
functional AUVs. An essential activity this year is for students to design, construct, and
train on an underwater obstacle course located somewhere on the Palouse that accurately
simulates at least three challenges (stations) faced at the Robosub competition in San
Diego, CA.

Collective Deliverables from the three Senior Design Teams and from the Robosub
Club.
During the past 3 years the senior design students and Robosub club members have
developed two AUV platforms. The most recent platform has all hardware installed (i.e.,
sensor packages, power sources, propulsion and computer board, etc.), however the former
platform is missing most parts. The 3 senior design teams, together with Robosub club
volunteers, should purchase the missing parts for this second AUV to make a functional
test prototype reserved for the use of the CptS senior design team. This will allow the CptS
students to avoid “down time” while waiting for AUV modifications. The AUV, not assigned
to the CptS group, will be improved upon by the WSU EE/CptE senior design team and by
the UI senior design team. The most effective AUV (of the two existing units) will be groomed
for and compete in the summer ’16 Robosub competition in San Diego, CA.

In addition students will design and build (before November 2015) an underwater obstacle
course that rigorously simulates a portion of the San Diego, CA Robosub obstacle course.
Students will then troubleshoot and test the two AUVs exhaustively during fall ’15, during
spring ’16 and during summer ’16. (Summer activity is on a volunteer basis and involves
preparing for travel to and competing in the Robosub competition in San Diego, CA).

Materials/information to be provided by NAVSEA Keyport includes the following. Materials:

Design teams will be given full access to the NEST hardware library for test and evaluation
purposes. NAVSEA has many applicable parts that can be loaned to the teams for testing so

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CptS 421/423 – Software Design Project I /II Fall 2015 – Spring 2016

the students can determine what they will purchase. Information: Keyport will provide
competition guidelines and engineering support.
Materials/information provided by students includes the following. Materials: The senior
design teams and the Club will provide a) the optimized AUV and compete with it in the
2016 19th International Robosub Competition in San Diego, CA; and b) an underwater
obstacle course located somewhere on the Palouse that accurately simulates at least three
challenges (stations) faced at the Robosub competition in San Diego, CA.. Information:
Students will provide a) a white paper outlining the final design (this can be a merging of
senior design Final Reports written for the three senior design classes); and b) presentations
that satisfy the NAVSEA mentor.

Responsibilities of the CptS team. The CptS team would work on the software that
control and operate the autonomous AUV. The team will design, construct, integrate, and
test three primary sub-systems: artificial intelligence (AI), image recognition (IR), and
control (CO). The AI sub-system handles the high level responsibilities of simulated
intelligence by managing goals and analyzing the supporting data received by the other two
systems. The IR sub-system continuously takes images from the two onboard cameras,
analyzes the images, and notifies the artificial intelligence if it recognizes obstacle objects.
The control sub-system continuously monitors the sensors, controls the thrusters and
pneumatics. It sends the sensor data to the AI, and oversees the control of the “action”
hardware according to commands sent by the AI. (Note: Grading for the EE/CptE team will
be coupled to AUV results from the Moscow/Pullman practice obstacle course, as results
from the Robosub competition in San Diego, CA come too late for coupling to grades.)

Background. Since academic year 2011-2012, four previous teams representing various
versions of the Robosub Club of the Palouse (including various senior design teams) have
several times competed in the Robosub competition in San Diego, CA and each time they
have advanced to the semifinals but not yet to the finals. Some students who attended and
participated in those competitions are available to help the Robosub Club members and the
new senior design teams come up to speed on how to be competitive in this event. With
substantial past experience and considering that two high quality Robosub platforms now
exist, the expectation is that the 2015 – 2016 academic year team will advance beyond
semifinals to the final round of competition.

Design Team Skills.

Some familiarity with Linux is required. All team members should have strong C++
programming skills.

Miscellaneous Details
Results from the 2015 competition are at the URL:
http://www.auvsifoundation.org/competitions/robosub/past-robosub-competitions/2015-
robosub
Robosub Club details are at the URL:
http://robosub.eecs.wsu.edu/
Note: US citizenship is not required to be on this EE415/416 senior design team.
Mentor: Michael Kapus (michael.kapus@navy.mil)
Co-mentor: Daniel Hubert (daniel.hubert1@navy.mil)

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