ORCA-VII: An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

The ORCA-VII is a fully autonomous submarine built to compete in the 2004 International AUV competition. The ORCA-VII is 48" long, 28" wide, and approximately 45 kg. The vehicle is propelled by a pair of horizontal thrusters mounted on the sides and a pair of vertical thrusters on the bow and stern. Autonomous navigation is aided by a suite of instruments including a water pressure depth sensor, a fluid-bulb inclinometer, a DSP based sonar direction finder, a magnetic compass, an inertial measurement unit, a light source tracker and an underwater video camera with computer vision software.