Cornell University Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

The Team - CUAUV is an entirely undergraduate-run engineering project team, consisting of 48 students spanning seven majors. The team offers a holistic engineering experience developing cutting-edge technology; students control the entire design, manufacturing, testing and revision cycle. As a seven-time RoboSub champion, CUAUV embodies a tradition of excellence and continuously pushes the envelope of autonomous underwater vehicle technology.

The Competition - CUAUV designs, builds, programs and tests two completely new autonomous submarines every year to compete in AUVSI’s international RoboSub competition. In August, we ship our sub down to San Diego, drop it in a recommissioned Navy testing pool, press the green button, and cheer it on as it navigates a complicated underwater obstacle course with no human intervention whatsoever: ramming buoys, tracking acoustic pingers, firing torpedoes through differently colored targets, re-positioning PVC structures, and more.

Your Impact - CUAUV depends on the generous support of its donors and could not exist without them. Our goal of $7,000 will go toward designing a new, innovative mini-sub, integrating an advanced SLAM system to calculate the position of the submarines and objects, and upgrading our Doppler Velocity Log sensor. We are constantly pushing ourselves to deliver a more advanced vehicle, and are more energized than ever to fully integrate those features. We hope to be able to call CUAUV “eight-time international RoboSub Champion” by next fall.

New Vehicles - CUAUV is developing two completely new vehicles for 2018. Castor and Pollux will be our most compact, maneuverable, and capable vehicles. The minisub, Pollux, has been completely redesigned to have nearly all the features of our mainsub, but in a much smaller form factor. The mainsub, Castor, will feature a reimagined acoustic communications system and more advanced software algorithms than before. Your contributions will help us bring our designs to reality.

Our Outreach - CUAUV is actively involved in giving back to the community. We offer badge workshops for Boy Scouts and Girl Scout troops, with activities that include building remote controlled mini-submarines and investigating acoustics. We also give tours of our lab, engage with local middle and high school robotics teams, and had the opportunity to present at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's National Robotics Week kick-off event.

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