Implementation of the AQUALUNG: a new form of autonomous underwater vehicle

Abstract

The paper presents design and implementation of a multitasking autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) named 'Aqualung.' The motivation of this project is to construct the AUV which is going to be participated in the SAUVC-2022 competition. The conventional autonomous underwater vehicles are highly expensive (up to 10 thousand USD) and have complex mechanisms whereas the construction cost of the proposed AUV is under $300 USD with a simple structure. DC gear motors are used in this vehicle to drive the propeller, a pressure sensor is used to convert air pressure to calculate pressure underwater, advanced image processing technology is used that has increased the proper geo mapping process and identifying any particular object under water. A grabber can be attached with its body to grab a particular thing for carrying an object. Use of lightweight materials in Aqualung AUV results in weight reduction and enables the device to consume less amount of energy. The proposed AUV exhibits excellent features which are presented in the result section.