The ORCA VII Vehicle

The ORCA-VII follows the basic modular design philosophy of previous incarnations of ORCA. The mechanical frame and core systems are mostly unchanged from the 2003 entry allowing development efforts to be concentrated on redesigning some of the systems for increased performance and reliability.

The motor controllers used in the vehicle have been completely redesigned from previous competitions. The speed controllers used in ORCA VII are derived from the 'OSMC' controller design, modified for the restricted space and lower current requirements of our vehicle

A custom MEMs-based inertial measurement unit has been developed and an off the shelf camera system is for used detecting and targeting the optical beacon provided in the competition arena.

Also, vision algorithms have been developed to determine the existence, position, and orientation of any rectangular bins in the field of view of ORCA-VII's downward facing camera

More information is available in the ORCA-VII Journal Paper