The Underwater Robotics Club provides students with an exciting opportunity to apply classroom skills to a challenging design project: an autonoumous underwater vehicle. Although we're primarily affiliated with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, our team is comprised of students from a variety of engineering and science disciplines including Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science. In 2006, we debuted Seawolf II at the AUVSI International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition in San Diego. We ranked 7th place in static judging, and 9th place overall among 21 teams from all over the world. During the competition, the vehicle had 15 minutes to complete several challenging tasks involving locating and following a pipeline, identifying and dropping markers in rectangular bins, "docking" with a station marked with a flashing light, and honing in on an acoustic beacon. This year, we are creating an enirely new vehicle, Seawolf III. We will post pictures and renderings of it in early November, 2008. It is a very exiciting project, and we are working at full throttle to have it ready for this year's competition!

The club began in Fall 2004 with generous support and mentorship from Vortex HC, LLC, a local robotics R&D company. Our first vehicle, Seawolf I, was a direct result of a year's worth of collaboration on an innovative new AUV design that the company developed for military applications. The students developed software and electronics for the first prototype vehicle, as well as assisted with its construction. Needless to say, it was a tremendously valuable experience for the students involved. A year later, the team went back to the drawing board to develop Seawolf II. Borrowing many of the innovative features of Seawolf I, Seawolf II was lighter, simpler to operate, and has a number of new features aimed at improving reliability. With the help of new recruits from the Mechanical Engineering Department and the Wolfpack Motorsports Team, Seawolf II was completely designed and built by students, with funding provided by our generous sponsors.

We are always seeking new members, so if you're interested in participating in the club, please email us! We'll add you to our mailing list and you'll receive updates and meeting information. Working in the Underwater Robotics Club is a challenging and demanding, but highly valuable and rewarding, experience.

Looking for flying vehicles? Try the Aerial Robotics Club