The Underwater Robotics Team at The Ohio State University Riptide AUV

The Underwater Robotics Team (UWRT) is a student led and student driven engineering project team at The Ohio State University. Currently consisting of twenty four active members, the team has been involved in the design of both remotely operated vehicles (ROV) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), the latter being its current focus. Autonomous underwater vehicles are underwater vessels often used in the exploration of the oceans. This includes surveying sea floors for the oil and gas sector, mine detection for military applications, and research applications such as recording carbon dioxide levels and microscopic life activity. The Underwater Robotics Team is competing in the 2017 AUVSI Robosub Competition in San Diego California. To compete, the team has updated the previous years AUV, Riptide, to improve on last years performance. Notable improvements to Riptide consist of: chassis redesign, electrical system redesign, and the addition of a control panel to the AUV. The chassis was rebuilt to allow for better maintenance and proper thruster operation. Riptide’s electrical system was improved upon to address fundamental design flaws and increase system robustness. The control panel consists of multiple switches to start mission runs, reset the computer, and reset the electrical system. With these improvements, Riptide should be able to complete competition tasks efficiently.