The design, construction, outfitting, and preliminary testing of the C-SCOUT autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)

This thesis presents and discusses the design process, construction, outfitting, and preliminary in-water testing of the C-SCOUT (Canadian Self-Contained Off-the-shelf Underwater Testbed) Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). This work was carried out from January 1999 to August 2001. C-SCOUT was designed to be of low cost and simple to manufacture while still retaining a multi-mission capability. The designed vehicle is for graduate student research with a limited budget, and is designed to be easily modifiable, small enough to be easily handled, highly maneuverable, and readily adaptable for many missions. A modular design was developed, and the most basic version of the AUV was built and tested as a proof-of-concept vehicle.; The C-SCOUT Baseline Configuration vehicle is 2.7 metres long, 0.4 metres in diameter, and 1.06 metres from fin-tip to fin-tip. A second vehicle hull, the C-SCOUT II, has been constructed for hydrodynamic testing on the planar motion mechanism. The control surfaces were designed using Det Norkse Veritas guidelines for highly maneuverable vessels and an in-depth analysis of pressure vessel design was carried out using boiler code from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Vehicle powering requirements were estimated using a component buildup method and an empirical database method. Both yielded very similar results. Preliminary in-water tests were conducted to validate the vehicle design methodology. The C-SCOUT AUV performed well in these trials and can now be used as a testbed vehicle for graduate level research.