The SandShark UUV, Bluefin Robotics

The Bluefin SandShark is a small, one-person portable autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) manufactured by Bluefin Robotics. The platform comes with a standardized tailcone section, which houses the propeller motor and fin actuation system, battery, an altimeter and pressure/depth sensor, a MEMS IMU, and an antenna for GPS and WiFi.

Our payload section was jointly designed by LAMSS and Bluefin. The payload includes a tetrahedral hydrophone array at the nose end of the vehicle, acoustic data acquisition system, and a computer for autonomy and real-time signal processing. The tetrahedral array gives the vehicle the ability to localize an acoustic source in real time for navigation or tracking. Data recording from the array is triggered by a Chip Scale Atomic clock (CSAC) providing precise time synchronization. A beaglebone black computer runs MOOS-IvP for back-seat autonomy. The vehicle will soon also have an acoustic modem for communications while submerged.

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