The Design of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Water Quality Monitoring

This paper describes the development of a civilian-used autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for water quality monitoring at reservoirs and watercourses that can obtain realtime visual and locational information. The mechanical design was completed with CAD software Solidworks. Four thrusters - two horizontal and two vertical - on board enable the vehicle to surge, heave, yaw, and pitch. A specialized water sample collection compartment is designed to perform water collection at target locations. The vehicle has a central controller - STM32 - and a sub-coordinate controller - Arduino MEGA 2560 - that coordinates multiple sensors including an inertial sensor, ultrasonic sensors, etc. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and the inertial sensor enable the vehicle's localization. Remote operators monitor and control the vehicle via a host computer system. Operators choose either semi-autonomous mode in which they set target locations or manual mode. The experimental results show that the vehicle is able to perform well in either mode.