Hallin Marine, a Superior Energy Services company, reports a strong performance by the Bumblebee Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (BBAUV) at the first Singapore Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition (SAUVC) in early March.

This strong finish puts the Hallin-sponsored team in good stead for its ultimate goal, AUVSI RoboSub – also sponsored by Hallin Marine Singapore Pte Ltd, which will be held in San Diego in July. BBAUV will be the first Singaporean team to participate in this international competition, which has been running for the past 16 years.

Nine teams took part in the event which was held at Singapore Polytechnic 1-3 March 2013. Contestants included teams from Anna University (India) and Far Eastern Federal University (Russia), National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Polytechnic.

Teams had to complete an obstacle course passing an underwater gate, knocking a golf ball off an underwater flare and making right angled turns using black guiding lines to surface into a specified ring. Only the top three teams could make it past the underwater gate and only BBAUV and the Russian AUV were able to reach the surfacing zone.

The team recognised that SAUVC was a valuable platform to gain competition experience, and what it took away from this competition was extremely beneficial to preparations for RoboSub.

“Coming in second is a great morale-booster for our team going into RoboSub,” comments team leader Ong Tian Chang. “Practising more is not enough; we need to put ourselves under time pressure that might affect the team’s performance during a competition run. We need to streamline the launch process and log down data for post processing.”

With the assistance of Hallin Marine’s Singapore based Manufacturing team and active support from subsea electronic equipment rental specialist Seatronic Singapore, fabrication has begun to build and equip an improved unit for RoboSub competition. The vehicle hull and frame are entirely made up of aluminium and feature a unique honeycomb support structure. Mechanical upgrades include new manipulators such as torpedoes, marker droppers and a robotic grabber. The sensors suite has also been improved to include a a stereo camera and acoustic hydrophones.

Press Release, March 26, 2013