Extending AUV Response Robot Capabilities to Solve Standardized Test Methods

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) response robots are special multipurpose devices, capable of moving and performing various tasks in water, autonomously, or with human teleoperation. Capability assessment of such devices is hard and complex work. This paper describes our work in AUV Response Robot testing from two aspects: First, additional testing methods are proposed for AUV capability assessment and second, we describe, in detail, how an AUV can be enhanced to pass the existing underwater response robot tests, defined by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In the first part of the paper, a short overview of the existing AUV testing methods is given, followed by our proposed, new test scenarios. The second part covers a general overview about our system design and development, which enabled the custom, enhanced AUV to pass the test scenarios.