Review of Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (AUV) Developments 
OCEAN VOYAGER II AND OCEAN EXPLORER [39] 
The AUV program is an ever-expanding field of study 
in the Ocean Engineering Department of Florida 
Atlantic University (FAU). Small, low-cost, long- 
range vehicles have been developed as sensor 
platforms for educational, scientific, and military 
applications. Currently, two separate vehicles are 
under construction, development, and refinement: 
the Ocean Voyager II (OVII) and the Ocean Explorer 
series. Several projects directly related to the 
vehicles themselves are underway at the FAU Ocean 
Engineering Department and at the University of 
South Florida Marine Science Department. Some of 
these include CHIRP side-scan and sub-bottom 
sonar, passive imaging sonar, long baseline sonar, acoustic modems, exotic batteries, ocean 
small-scale turbulence sensors, and various suites of water quality packages. 
ies h 
Figure 24. Ocean Voyager Il 
The OVII (figures 24 and 25), was initiated as the child of 23 seniors of the Ocean Engineering 
Department in fall 1992. It was the senior design project of this class to design a practical AUV 
to carry a sensor package designed by the University of South Florida (USF) to measure the 
shallow-water coastal environment. These data are then used to ground truth data from 
satellites currently in orbit. OVII has been operational since January 1994 and is continually 
upgraded and modified by the staff and students here as tasks dictate. This vehicle has also 
been used to test CHIRP sidescan and sub-bottom sonars being developed here, as well as 
LBL navigation techniques. Following operations in the Dry Tortugas off the Florida Keys in 
August, the vehicle is slated to be turned over to USF for continued operations with their 
instrument packages. 
The instruments aboard the OVII are the 
Bottom Classification Albedance Package 
(BCAP), an _ integrated suite which 
includes a Xybion multispectral 
downward-looking camera, upwelling and 
downwelling radiometers, fluorometer, 
transmissometer, and pencil lasers for 
sizing. The Bottom Classification and 
Albedo Package (BCAP) is an ensemble 
of optical sensors used to calibrate 
algorithms and validate satellite ocean 
color data in the coastal oceans. BCAP 
was prototyped aboard an ROV 
and has, since June 1995, been 
routinely deployed aboard OVII. 
Figure 25. OVII Cut-Away 
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