Design and testing of the Marport SQX-500 Twin-Pod AUV

Abstract

The SQX-500 AUV is currently under joint development by Marport Canada Inc, the Institute for Ocean Technology of the National Research Council Canada, and Memorial University of Newfoundland. With a twin-hull design, and a novel propulsion and control system, the SQX-500 provided several unique challenges during the design and development process. In order to characterize the hydrodynamic performance of this vehicle for various operating conditions, a complete set of hydrodynamic experiments was carried out. These experiments included 0.88 model scale tow tank testing, full scale testing of a custom propeller, passive stability verification, and several tests to characterize the vehicle propulsion system. Taken together these experiments determine the overall propulsive efficiency of the vehicle under various operating conditions. In addition, analysis of the results from these experiments was used to determine which tests should be performed on future vehicle designs.