The Floating Robotic Autonomous Nautical Companion (FRANC) Team
Part of our new Robotics Intelligent Autonomous Systems (RIAS) program
(Joint CSC, ECE, and ME):
A new research program in autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) has begun
at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT). The team is
nicknamed "FRANC." The project has formed under the cross departmental
robotics intelligent autonomous systems (RIAS) program at SDSMT. The team
is made up of primarily undergraduate students with a growing number of
graduate students (20 Students ~ 3 Professors to date). The current AUV is
intended for scientific exploration and underwater work under extreme
conditions. With a design pressure rating of 1500 psi (10,300 kPa), this
submersible will be capable of depths of over 1000 meters beneath sea level.
This pressure rating will be achieved by using crushable design techniques,
e.g. instead of building a pressure vessel to protect the electrical component
compartments, their compartments will be filled with mineral oil. The AUV
will be capable of speeds of 1 m/s and five degrees of freedom. An array of
mapping sensors will be utilized, including sonar, Inertial measurement unit,
and a visual light camera. This unit is being constructed for an operation time
of three hours. It will operate between 20 and 200 degrees F. The AUV is
designed to incorporate many sensors including a water sampling system,
visual, ultra-violet, and inferred imaging systems, temperature and pressure
sampling, and potential for mineral or biological collection system. This AUV
is being build specifically for use in DUESL but could be configured for other
applications. The AUVs initial mission will be to map the flooded regions of
DUSEL. The project has limited funding 8K from NASA and 10K from the
South Dakota NASA Space Grant. We are always looking for sponsors, we just
added MEMSense LLC as a sponsor with their donation of an Inertial
Management Unit (IMU) worth 1.3K, so if you would like to help in any way
contact us!!! See you under the water soon!
Dr. Tolle
