Design of a Reconfigurable Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Offshore Platform Monitoring and Intervention

A new type of vehicle has been designed by the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Florence (DIEF); it is an AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) capable of switching its shape according to mission needs matching the best UUVs (Unmanned Underwater Vehicles) features: it is compact and near torpedo-shaped in case of long distance missions, such as surveillance and monitoring (closed configuration, typical of AUVs), on the other end it becomes isotropic for site inspection and on-site manipulation (open configuration, emblem of ROVs - Remotely Operated Vehicles). The main goal of the work is adding to the hydrodynamic vehicle the capability of changing its structure and its thruster configuration. The paper deals with the study and the design of the vehicle. Its main features, design choices and payloads, that can be equipped with, are described.