Design and Development of the MeCO Open-Source Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Widhalm, David, Ohnsted, Cory, Knutson, Corey, Kutzke, Demetrious, Singh, Sakshi, Mukherjee, Rishi, Schwidder, Grant, Wu, Ying-Kun, Sattar, Junaed
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Widhalm, David
Ohnsted, Cory
Knutson, Corey
Kutzke, Demetrious
Singh, Sakshi
Mukherjee, Rishi
Schwidder, Grant
Wu, Ying-Kun
Sattar, Junaed
author_facet Widhalm, David
Ohnsted, Cory
Knutson, Corey
Kutzke, Demetrious
Singh, Sakshi
Mukherjee, Rishi
Schwidder, Grant
Wu, Ying-Kun
Sattar, Junaed
contents We present MeCO, the Medium Cost Open-source autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), a versatile autonomous vehicle designed to support research and development in underwater human-robot interaction (UHRI) and marine robotics in general. An inexpensive platform to build compared to similarly-capable AUVs, the MeCO design and software are released under open-source licenses, making it a cost effective, extensible, and open platform. It is equipped with UHRI-focused systems, such as front and side facing displays, light-based communication devices, a transducer for acoustic interaction, and stereo vision, in addition to typical AUV sensing and actuation components. Additionally, MeCO is capable of real-time deep learning inference using the latest edge computing devices, while maintaining low-latency, closed-loop control through high-performance microcontrollers. MeCO is designed from the ground up for modularity in internal electronics, external payloads, and software architecture, exploiting open-source robotics and containerarization tools. We demonstrate the diverse capabilities of MeCO through simulated, closed-water, and open-water experiments. All resources necessary to build and run MeCO, including software and hardware design, have been made publicly available.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_10928
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Design and Development of the MeCO Open-Source Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
Widhalm, David
Ohnsted, Cory
Knutson, Corey
Kutzke, Demetrious
Singh, Sakshi
Mukherjee, Rishi
Schwidder, Grant
Wu, Ying-Kun
Sattar, Junaed
Robotics
We present MeCO, the Medium Cost Open-source autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), a versatile autonomous vehicle designed to support research and development in underwater human-robot interaction (UHRI) and marine robotics in general. An inexpensive platform to build compared to similarly-capable AUVs, the MeCO design and software are released under open-source licenses, making it a cost effective, extensible, and open platform. It is equipped with UHRI-focused systems, such as front and side facing displays, light-based communication devices, a transducer for acoustic interaction, and stereo vision, in addition to typical AUV sensing and actuation components. Additionally, MeCO is capable of real-time deep learning inference using the latest edge computing devices, while maintaining low-latency, closed-loop control through high-performance microcontrollers. MeCO is designed from the ground up for modularity in internal electronics, external payloads, and software architecture, exploiting open-source robotics and containerarization tools. We demonstrate the diverse capabilities of MeCO through simulated, closed-water, and open-water experiments. All resources necessary to build and run MeCO, including software and hardware design, have been made publicly available.
title Design and Development of the MeCO Open-Source Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.10928