We did implementation testing of our programming buoy today. The buoy will allow us, during testing, to easily modify the AUV's programming with a drag and drop GUI as well as view live video feeds while the vehicle is submerged. We found that the powering of the buoy is ok, although the battery life was shorter then we expected and the wiring of the Ethernet cable through the SEACON connector was mis-wired. We have fixed the wiring but are waiting to charge the existing batteries fully before our next test.

Stable Control Testing

The above video shows pool testing demonstrating stable heading, depth, and pitch control. The photos are a few from the same testing session (More to come)

Pool Testing

More footage from testing last Friday.

Depth and Pitch Test

The team successfully completed a stable depth and pitch test of the AUV. After tweaking the integral and derivative terms in our PID depth controller we were able to eliminate any oscillation and achieve a very acceptable settling time. The depth cell which was used for this test has a slight bias that caused a small amount of depth error but this problem will be rectified shortly when the new cell is installed.

Thruster Testing