The Endeavour ASV: Hardware, Sensor & Software Overview

This paper provides an overview of the hardware, sensor and software systems of the Endeavour Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) developed by the Queensland University of Technology for entry in the 2014 Maritime RobotX Challenge. The design features include a modular sensor and computing hardware arrangement to facilitate rapid assembly and transportation between field sites, and a unique dual electric propulsion system. A minimal, yet capable sensor suite and software architecture built on the Robotic Operating System (ROS) has been developed to allow completion of all five of the challenge tasks. The ASV’s control, mapping and task specific vision and acoustics-based algorithms have been evaluated in both simulation and through field experiments with results presented demonstrating their capabilities.