CUAUV

Gemini, the 2013-14 CUAUV competition vehicle, in the water at the RoboSub competition.

The Cornell University Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (CUAUV) team took home the top prize at the 17th Annual International RoboSub Competition, July 28-Aug. 3 in San Diego, Calif.

With their latest vehicle, Gemini, Cornell took home a $10,000 prize, beating out close to 40 other teams from around the world. CUAUV has won the student competition five times in the last six years, including last year.

Co-sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, the competition advances the development of autonomous underwater vehicles by challenging student engineers to perform realistic missions in an underwater environment, such as building subsea infrastructure or investigating lost vehicles.

Gemini is both a competition and research vehicle. It was designed to be light while retaining full competition capabilities and to have better control properties. Compared with previous generations, Gemini has stronger frame structures and pressure vessels, a more streamlined electronics system, an improved sensor suite and more robust vision algorithms.

CUAUV faced some challenges during competition, said co-team leader Moonyoung Lee ’15. Their valve enclosure leaked, resulting in critical failures in their actuator systems. They came up with a temporary, but effective solution: instead of enforcing better seals, they filled their enclosure with vitamin oil.

“Our success in the competition is hugely dependent on experience,” Lee said. “From prior experience, our team is more capable of making effective design decisions on the fly.” Also pivotal to the team’s success, Lee said, is the previous work of alumni.