Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Meet Douglas

Navigating RoboSub, mapping seabeds, and monitoring underwater infrastructure. McGill Robotics’ ClarkAUV is the future of next-generation AUV. Built on the success of several years of team designs, the smallest and lightest McGill Robotics AUV to date. There’s nothing else like it.

Meet Our Team

Over the course of an entire school year, our team of talented engineers has worked tirelessly to produce the AUV representing our team at this year’s RoboSub. Spanning three different sub-divisions of Mechanical, Electrical, and Software, the more than 20 students who bonded together to develop and design ClarkAUV 2.0 are truly some of the most dedicated and exceptional students that McGill has to offer.

Building Robots For A Sustainable Future

In partnership with McGill’s Sustainability Projects Fund, McGill Robotics is developing robots to assist researchers in large-scale environmental studies, from tracking deer populations to monitoring invasive aquatic species, making comprehensive data collection and analysis more feasible.

Douglas

at a Glance

Degrees of Freedom

  • 6 (Surge, Sway, Heave, Roll, Pitch, Yaw)

Power System

  • Custom Power Governance PCB.

  • 14.8V 20000mAH BlueRobotics LiPo Battery

Propulsion

  • BlueRobotics T200 Thrusters and Electronic Speed Controllers (x8)

Navigation Stack

  • SBG Elipse-N IMU

  • Water Linked A50 DVL

  • Custom Pressure Sensor

Computer Vision

  • Intel RealSense d455 (Forward Facing)

  • Arducam IMX219 Camera Module

Embedded Systems

  • Arduino Uno Rev3 (Propulsion).

  • Arduino Micro (Pressure Sensor)

Compute Module

  • NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin

Machine Learning

  • PyTorch

  • YOLO v8

Software Stack

  • Robotics Operating System (ROS) Noetic

  • Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

  • Python3, C++, C

Douglas

Mechanical Design.

Robust mechanical design meets elegant UI/UX principles: this year we revamped the previous version of Clark to optimize for flexibility, starting with a reimagined chassis that merges symmetry with stability and flexibility, using stainless steel cubes and T-slotted framing. Our streamlined propeller positioning optimizes movement control, housed in a robust, sealed acrylic hull, featuring a sliding shelf for quick electronics access. We've ingeniously overhauled the internal layout with a new sled mechanism, ensuring straightforward access to our PCBs and electronics.

Douglas

Electrical Architecture.

Re-wiring what’s possible for university-level design: Our high-caliber power board delivers robust protection and efficient energy distribution, seamlessly driving the entire AUV from a PCB smaller than an iPhone.

The Sensor Board, a crucial communication hub, interfaces with multiple sensors for optimal data processing. Together, they streamline wiring, enhance safety, and enable real-time decisions - a testament to the unrivaled autonomy and performance of our AUV.

Douglas

Software Stack.

At the core of our AUV's innovative software design: Planner orchestrates high-level decisions, Vision employs machine learning for object detection, State Estimation ensures real-time precision, and Propulsion optimizes movement. Our Gazebo-based simulation with realistic hydrodynamics enables us to rapidly test and tune our code in a pool-like environment.

Meet the Team

Our Partners: