The Hydrobatic Dual-Arm Intervention AUV Cuttlefish

This paper presents the basic concept, mechatronic design as well as the control and navigation approaches of the hydrobatic dual-arm intervention AUV Cuttlefish. Designed for autonomous manipulation of subsea structures, the AUV was developed with some unique features: 1) the ability to take arbitrary poses in the water column to reach even difficult to access objects with its two specifically designed manipulators, 2) the ability to change the center of gravity and the buoyancy to tune more towards stability or towards agility and 3) a docking interface with fast data transfer when connected and thus allowing for human remote control aside from the autonomous operations. Designing the internal communication on the system we followed the paradigm that every data source should be a standalone communication node, so that not only internal subsystems, but also the remote control center as well as further third party data handlers could subscribe to the information needed. With autonomous subsea intervention still being a field of active research, we conclude with an outlook on the next envisioned steps for the work with the Cuttlefish AUV and name possible ways to use AI to further push the autonomy and robustness of future intervention AUVs.