108 Tampa Deep Sea Xplorers’ Barracuda AUV stands out from the growing range of small AUV designs by virtue of the thrusters on the ends of its dive planes, a distinctive feature that on its own almost justifies its existence. It brings some more practical advantages to the party, however. Among them are great manoeuvrability at low speeds and confined spaces, which is notoriously poor in more conventional torpedo-shaped AUVs with a thruster or propeller at the rear, and extra space in the tail cone for sensors or other equipment. The intention is to produce a fleet of Barracudas with swarming capabilities that are affordable for organisations whose budgets won’t run to ownership or even rental of a single large AUV. The base model is available for $15,000. CFO Joe Daum credits CEO Ed Larson and mechanical engineer Dennis Lorence with the design of the vehicle, which they undertook for the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE competition looking for innovative solutions for ocean floor mapping. The Barracuda measures 1.2 m long and 10 cm in diameter. Its body is covered with a streamlined layer of syntactic foam, and weighs 12 kg in air, making it small and light enough to be launched by hand. Within that all-up weight, about 1.4 kg can be devoted to payload in the standard configuration, accommodated in an internal bay with a maximum length of about 30 cm as standard. However, Peter Donaldson reports on the unusual design aspects of this light and affordable AUV Thrust of the matter August/September 2023 | Uncrewed Systems Technology With thrusters on the end of its hydroplanes, the Barracuda AUV is designed to bring greater manoeuvrability than more conventional vehicles with a thruster and rudder at the rear (Images courtesy of Tampa Deep Sea Xplorers)
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