MIT Wins the 2004 AUV Competition

The ORCA-VII came in first place in the 2004 AUVSI competition with a perfect mission run. This was the first time that we, or any team, has completed all of the mission objectives. We will be posting some of the photos, and stories from the competition soon, but for now here is a video of our final mission run from the downward looking camera.

Just to set the context here is what you will see, ORCA will:

1. Dive to depth and navigate through the validation gate
2. Do a zig-zag search pattern looking for the target bins
3. Detect the bins, center over the last bin and drop two yellow markers in the last bin
4. Use the sonar pinger to navigate to the recovery zone and surface.

Final Run Movie in MOV format 76.5M

Bin Drop Movie in AVI format 1.9M

Bin Drop Movie in MOV format 2.5M

The year competition took place July 28 - August 1, at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego, CA. More information about the 2004 competition can be found on the AUVSI web site including, final standings, official rules, and information about the other participants.