CU autonomous submarine team places 2nd in world competition

A competition diver guides Cornell's 2002 autonomous submarine into the water in preparation for the vehicle's final run, Aug. 4, in San Diego. Ryan Stenson

By Bill Steele

A team of Cornell students returned last week from the Fifth International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Competition, held July 31-Aug. 1 in San Diego, with second-place honors, but confident that their miniature submarine was the technically superior entry.

Although the Cornell team's computer-controlled sub performed flawlessly, a technicality in scoring gave the win to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology team, said James Buescher '03, captain of the 17-person Cornell team.

"This is the first year Cornell, or any team, has entered a vehicle that showed such an advanced level of autonomy," Buescher said. Cornell came in fifth in last year's competition. Fifteen teams entered this year, including two from high schools.

The competition, sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Office of Naval Research, is held in a large pool sloping to a depth of 38 feet in the center. Seventeen boxes about 1-by-2 feet are placed on the bottom -- one in the center surrounded by two concentric rings of eight. The task for the competing subs is to locate as many of the boxes as possible within a 20-minute period, read the bar codes printed on their tops and return information about the depth of the boxes to shore. The subs are entirely on their own during the process, following internal computer control.

The technology involved has applications in the military and in offshore oil exploration.

The Cornell strategy was to go for the center of the pool, where the heaviest concentration of boxes would be found. Not all competitors' subs were able to operate at that depth, Buescher said, but Cornell's vehicle had been tested to a depth of 60 feet in Cayuga Lake. "We're fortunate to have a deep body of water for testing," he noted.

The Cornell vehicle used onboard sonar to navigate to the center of the pool and locate the boxes, then moved over each box to record an image of its bar code with a video camera. Unfortunately, Buescher said, the onboard computer was not sufficiently powerful to interpret the bar-code image. At the end of the tour, the sub downloaded its information for processing on land. MIT handled the final processing just a bit faster than Cornell, and that was what gave them the edge, Buescher explained.

"The students performed like winners. I'm very proud of them," said Kevin Kornegay, Cornell associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, who advised the team.

Cornell Dean of Engineering Kent Fuchs and Marsha Pickens, assistant dean of engineering, also attended the final round of competition in San Diego. Said Fuchs: "The CUAUV team demonstrated again Cornell's world-class excellence in engineering student-team competitions. We are also particularly proud of faculty, such as Professor Kornegay, who commit their personal time to advising and assisting students in experiential learning opportunities."

After the competition, the student team attended, with Fuchs and Kornegay, a reception sponsored by the San Diego Cornell Alumni Club, where they demonstrated the autonomous underwater vehicle, spoke about the competition and met with prospective Cornell students.

In addition to Buescher, team members included: Bryan Silverthorn '05; Keisuke "K" Nakagawa '04; David Hinkes '04; Ryan Stenson '04; Scott Weeks '04; Philip Sieh '03; Alex Shih '05; Vlad Muste '03; Mike DeLance, master's student; J. Dan Weaver, '03; Renaldi Winoto '03; Walter Chang '02, Vikash "V" Goel, master's student; Musyoka Munyoki, master's student; Sean Welch, doctoral student; and alumnus Dave Hays '01.

The team was sponsored by Lockheed Martin, R.D. Instruments, Nauticos, C & C Technologies and Tektronix, and it received extensive support at Cornell from the Provost's Office, the College of Engineering, the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Department of Computer Science and the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

"Industry funds were kind of short, but the university stepped in, and we really are grateful for their support," Kornegay said.

The cost of materials for the vehicle, including components donated by sponsors, is estimated at about $30,000.