Cornell University Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

CUAUV designs, builds, programs and tests a completely new autonomous submarine every year to compete in AUVSI’s international RoboSub competition. In August, we ship our sub down to San Diego, drop it in a recommissioned Navy testing pool, press the green button, and cheer it on as it navigates a complicated underwater obstacle course with no human intervention whatsoever: ramming buoys, dropping weighted darts on Space Invader-shaped objects, firing torpedoes through differently colored targets, re-positioning PVC structures and more. CUAUV is entirely undergraduate-run, consisting of over 40 students spanning numerous academic disciplines. The team offers a holistic engineering experience developing cutting-edge technology; students control the entire design, manufacturing, testing and revision cycle. As a six-time RoboSub champion, CUAUV embodies a tradition of excellence and continuously pushes the envelope of autonomous underwater vehicle technology.