AUV Sim is a software package which simulates underwater vehicles. The emphasis is on providing a framework within which you can build and configure a vehicle, whether it’s a small torpedo or a Work Class ROV or a manned vehicle.
The simulator allows you to build up body elements, actuators, thrusters, in a very flexible manner; then, you can test the vehicle, to evaluate its stability and manoeuvrability, and conduct sensitivity analyses to determine the optimal configuration for your mission.
Once the vehicle has been designed, AUV Sim can then be used as a test harness, under the control of the autopilot, offering the possibility of hardware-in-the-loop testing so that the control system and electro-mechanical subsystems can be configured before putting the vehicle into water.
AUV Sim provides the following features:
- Flexible and easy to use facility to create and edit a new vehicle from scratch.
- Body elements – static bodies and fins and lights.
- Actuators – ducted fans, swivelling thrusters, hydroplanes, moving and variable ballast.
- Control Allocation module which enables the actuators to be connected to the autopilots.
- A list of sensors which can be enabled, and error characteristics that are configurable to mimic what is expected on the real vehicle.
- Serial and Ethernet interfaces, fully configurable to transmit data using the appropriate sentence formats (numerous sentences supported).
- Built-in data logging to Matlab MAT format and to csv.
- Event logging.
- Joystick interface.
- Built-in autopilots for heading, speed, track, attitude, depth and height over seabed.
- Plan view supporting charts, geotiffs and the ability to view from horizontal directions.
- A fully configurable front end, allowing the user to add dials, digital readouts, LEDs, sliders and buttons to support a wide range of features.
- External control inputs, so that the simulator can accept commands from a third party autopilot or from SPECTRE in a variety of formats.
Using AUV Sim, you can build your chosen vehicle; test drive it, adjust its configuration until the performance and maneuverability meets your mission requirements; then connect it to SPECTRE to perform hardware in the loop simulation so as to verify how it can be controlled. This means that you can develop a good understanding of the expected behaviour of your hardware before putting hardware into water.
There are a large number of sensor outputs, both standard and proprietary.
If you would like to see a working demonstration of the AUV Sim software please use the contact form below to request the software.
