SEMBIO - a small energy-efficient swarm AUV

Abstract

Most of the autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are provided with a main battery to process the on-board software and for the electronic systems. In this case, on-board energy capacity (battery capacity) will limit the operational time of the AUV. Energy depletion may occur at a critical moment during a task execution. In addition, returning the robot to its home-base and recharging the AUV to complete the task would be expensive and time-consuming. This paper presents the SEMBIO AUV that was constructed to reduce energy consumption using a streamlined body design. Furthermore, SEMBIO is provided with a solar and energy management system (SEMS) to increase the mission time. The small and inexpensive design of the SEMBIO AUV has been created to be employed in swarm robotics research, particularly for environmental monitoring applications.