Prowling the Deep
It looks like a cross between a bomb and a torpedo, but it’s really a submarine. A miniature one, that is.
It’s an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), and it’s the end
result of a yearlong effort by students from the ocean, electrical, and mechanical engineering departments at URI. Named Prowler 4, URI’s AUV competed in this year’s prestigious annual International AUV Competition held in San Diego in early August.
This was the fourth year that URI participated in the national UAV competition. In 2000, the first year that URI competed, they came in first place, beating out long-time champion MIT. This year, despite the best efforts of an excellent team, they didn’t finish as well.
After a promising start (URI was in first place after the static judging in the first qualification round), a power glitch in Prowler 4 caused a number of sub-systems to fail. With spares for some of the systems, the team performed repairs on the vehicle — including a heroic last-minute “hotwire” at the dock — to make the finals. Ultimately, however, a digital compass could not be repaired and the vehicle was unable to navigate effectively.
Despite the overwhelming obstacles, the URI team finished sixth out of 12 teams.
According to team captain Peter Obuchowski, this year’s AUV team was exceptional. Instead of limiting membership to only certain engineering students, it became a club of sorts, open to the entire engineering and computer science departments. “We had 20 to 25 people from various disciplines attending the weekly meetings throughout the school year, and nine who continued with the project through the summer,” said Obuchowski. “That gave us a very good, strong team.”
In addition to Obuchowski, this year’s diverse URI AUV team comprised Eric Martin, Chris Kreuter, and Annan Mozeika from ocean engineering; Chuen-Song Chen, Mike Beliard, and Nathan Obuchowski from electrical engineering; and Jason Lavigne and Gabe Schwartz from mechanical engineering.
“These students did an outstanding job,” said Jim Miller, professor of ocean engineering and the director of the AUV team. “They represented URI with professionalism and pride.”
It’s an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), and it’s the end
result of a yearlong effort by students from the ocean, electrical, and mechanical engineering departments at URI. Named Prowler 4, URI’s AUV competed in this year’s prestigious annual International AUV Competition held in San Diego in early August. This was the fourth year that URI participated in the national UAV competition. In 2000, the first year that URI competed, they came in first place, beating out long-time champion MIT. This year, despite the best efforts of an excellent team, they didn’t finish as well.
After a promising start (URI was in first place after the static judging in the first qualification round), a power glitch in Prowler 4 caused a number of sub-systems to fail. With spares for some of the systems, the team performed repairs on the vehicle — including a heroic last-minute “hotwire” at the dock — to make the finals. Ultimately, however, a digital compass could not be repaired and the vehicle was unable to navigate effectively.
Despite the overwhelming obstacles, the URI team finished sixth out of 12 teams.
According to team captain Peter Obuchowski, this year’s AUV team was exceptional. Instead of limiting membership to only certain engineering students, it became a club of sorts, open to the entire engineering and computer science departments. “We had 20 to 25 people from various disciplines attending the weekly meetings throughout the school year, and nine who continued with the project through the summer,” said Obuchowski. “That gave us a very good, strong team.”
In addition to Obuchowski, this year’s diverse URI AUV team comprised Eric Martin, Chris Kreuter, and Annan Mozeika from ocean engineering; Chuen-Song Chen, Mike Beliard, and Nathan Obuchowski from electrical engineering; and Jason Lavigne and Gabe Schwartz from mechanical engineering.
“These students did an outstanding job,” said Jim Miller, professor of ocean engineering and the director of the AUV team. “They represented URI with professionalism and pride.”