Autonomous Surface Vehicle

An Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) is a watercraft capable of autonomous navigation and can be used for various tasks. The UNH ASV team is in charge of designing the craft for seafloor mapping which is resource intensive and requires automation. The current ASV, SeaMOOS, was designed for the purpose of deploying a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), which will be used to take detailed scans of the ocean floor. The team has worked in collaboration with the UNH ROV team on deployment for the ROV as well as tracking its location using acoustic sensors. Additionally, due to the longevity of the ASV project, SeaMOOS was designed to be modular so that changes can easily be made to the platform to suit the needs of future teams. The ASV is controlled by MOOS-IvP, an open source marine operating system containing powerful tools and frameworks for complex marine vehicle autonomy. Using this software, the team has been able to create a shore station to remotely control and monitor the ASV. MOOS' IvP component also provides the basis for point to point navigation, and the team has been working on improving the autonomy of the ASV with obstacle detection using LiDAR, and by implementing heading and speed controls.