WIREDGOV

For the second year running, a Heriot-Watt University team has won the annual Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe (SAUC-E) – an underwater robot championship organised by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) – scooping a £3,000 prize from sponsors BAE Systems.

Heriot-Watt’s robot, ‘Nessie’, performed consistently throughout the two days of competition, scoring higher than the other seven competing teams. Along with the other robots, Nessie had to perform a series of underwater tasks autonomously including passing through several gates without touching the frames, parking inside a box and following a moving target. The tests all took place in Europe’s largest freshwater tank at QinetiQ’s Ocean Basin in Haslar, Gosport, which is normally used by the Ministry of Defence for ship and submarine trials.

Judge Ben Evans from Dstl’s naval systems department, who has worked with autonomous underwater vehicles with UK armed forces and NATO, said of Nessie: “It was the most robust and effective robot on the day and the team’s hard work has clearly paid off for a second year running. The robot did nearly all the challenges and carried out far more of the underwater course than the others. Nessie has had a long period of development and some of the problems from previous years have now been overcome.”

SAUC-E, which is also supported by Defence Equipment and Support’s programmes and technology group, is open to teams that must consist of at least 75 percent students and be led by students, and is designed to challenge a new generation of engineers to build a vehicle and perform realistic missions underwater.

French team ENSIETA (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Ingénieurs des Etudes et Techniques d’Armement) from Brest, Brittany, came second, and the judges praised their use of sonar. Ben continues: “ENSIETA’s robot relied totally on sonar for its guidance system which was very impressive. While other teams had the benefit of multiple sensors, ENSIETA were able to complete many of the tasks using just their
sonar sensor.” ENSIETA received a £2,000 prize from sponsors Thales.

German team Avalon from the University of Bremen came in third. Ben Evans comments: “This robot used cameras and a structured lighting laser system so that it could ‘look’ to see what was in front on it and assess what it was doing so, ‘was that I gate I’ve just passed through?’, ‘is that a buoy?. Another impressive underwater vehicle.”

And a team from the University of Southampton, which supports the overall competition along with the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, came in fourth. Previous winners of SAUC-E, the Southampton team encountered an early fault with their robot – while adjusting the robot’s ballast the Wi-Fi broke – which proved critical to their overall success. But the team still managed to make it through to the final.

SAUC-E is not just about completing the tasks, but more importantly it is about encouraging innovation, fostering ties between universities and industry and looking at ways to advance AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) technology. SAUC-E which is supported by the French ministry of defence, swaps venues between the UK and mainland Europe.

The innovation prize was awarded to German team University Lubeck and while they didn’t make it to the final, the judges where very inventive with the design of their robot. Ben adds: “The Lubeck team came up with a very novel ‘UV in a box’ design. It was a very simple vehicle with a computer in an off-the shelf waterproof casing and some hand made thrusters. This was a great demonstration of what can be achieved relatively quickly with what is readily available. What’s more this was Lubeck’s first time in the competition making their achievements in the pool even more impressive.” The Lubeck team won a prize of £2,000 from sponsors SALT (Subsea Asset Location Technologies – a Dstl spinout company).

The teams that didn’t make it to the final held a championship competition which was won by the University of Bath with University Lubeck in second place.

SAUC-E organiser Dstl’s Phil Brown said of the event: “Once again students from across Europe have come up with some truly innovative designs that have left the judges and spectators impressed with the talent of these young engineers, mathematicians and scientists. The tasks we set are not easy by any means and it takes a lot of hard work, time and dedication to build vehicles that will even be able to attempt them. There have been a number of designs and aspects that could possibly be worked upon to be used in military and industry applications.”

For more information contact the Dstl press office on 01980 658088, 07766 134768, press@dstl.gov.uk.

Notes to editors:
Dstl

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is a centre of scientific excellence for the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Its 3,500 strong workforce includes some of the nation’s most talented and creative scientists with the brief to ensure that the UK Armed Forces and Government are supported in-house by the very best impartial scientific and technological advice. Dstl’s position at the heart of the MOD means that its advice is trusted by governments, academia, industry and international partners. It offers timely and accurate advice at all levels of military planning and operations, both overseas and on the home front. For more information please visit http://www.dstl.gov.uk/