The Marine Systems Engineering Laboratory of the University of New Hampshire designed and constructed two untethered AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) submersibles (referred to as EAVE III) in 1987. These vehicles were designed as testbeds for the investigation and demonstration of several concepts including multivehicle cooperation, intervehicle communication, and automated decision making. These vehicles are designed such that additional sensors and software can be included to augment the system and make it an adaptable autonomous testbed. The authors describe the basic system hardware and software architecture as well as the existing sensor subsystems. They describe results of underwater tests conducted in the fall of 1987 with respect to preliminary sensor and vehicle performance. They also describe plans for future developments and important concept tests of these vehicles.
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