Design and construction of the GUANAY-II autonomous underwater vehicle

This paper presents the design and construction of Guanay II vehicle. It is an autonomous underwater vehicle that navigates over the sea surface and, at certain fixed points, dives vertically to obtain a profile of a water column. The designed vehicle has a double hull structure. The external fiberglass hull, which is not watertight, has been designed in accordance with Myring profiles to provide a good hydrodynamic performance. The watertight module located inside the external hull is made of aluminum and contains the immersion actuator, power batteries and the electronic system to control vehicle operations. The control system is divided in several subsystems: navigation, propulsion/immersion, safety, communication and data acquisition. The vehicle is 2300mm long by 320mm wide, and weighs 90kg.