Development of a multi-AUV SLAM testbed at the University of Michigan

This paper reports the modifications involved in preparing two commercial Ocean-Server AUV systems for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) research at the University of Michigan (UMich). The UMich Perceptual Robotics Laboratory (PeRL) upgraded the vehicles with additional navigation and perceptual sensors including 12-bit stereo down-looking Prosilica cameras, a Teledyne 600 kHz RDI Explorer DVL for 3-axis bottom-lock velocity measurements, a KVH single-axis fiber-optic gyroscope for yaw rate, and a WHOI Micromodem for communication, along with other sensor packages discussed forthwith. To accommodate the additional sensor payload, a new Delrin nose cone was designed and fabricated. Additional 32-bit embedded CPU hardware was added for data-logging, real-time control, and in-situ real-time SLAM algorithm testing and validation. Details of the design modification, and related research enabled by this integration effort, are discussed herein.