1. Technology: National Institute of Oceanography (N.I.O), Goa, has developed a small autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) ‘Maya’ as a tool for scientific and commercial applications. The development was funded by N.I.O. and the Department of Information Technology, New Delhi.

Envisioned missions of the AUV include oceanographic studies, marine biology studies, water quality studies in fresh water reservoirs/dams and environmental monitoring of coastal waters & estuaries, to name a few.

The vehicle is made up of three parts. The first part is the free flooding nose cone of the vehicle which houses the scientific sensors. This nose cone is swappable and is application specific. The second part is the sealed aluminum hull which we call the Core Pressure Unit. The core pressure unit houses the batteries, electronics, vehicle sensors, actuators, communication systems and the electronics. The third part is called the tail cone and is used to house the propulsion device which is a brushless dc motor thruster. (see exploded view and photograph)

The vehicle is rated for 200m depth operations and is capable of diving to different programmed depths and maintaining control of motion at those depths. It can follow mission paths that are pre-programmed. Safety features enable the vehicle to return to the surface in case of hardware failure.  The missions for the vehicle are loaded through an RF link with the aid of a GUI on the shore.

NIO signed the agreement for licensing of AUV technology with following firms.

• VEA Automation and Robotics Private Limited, Kurichi, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu on 4 September 2009.
• Larsen & Toubro Limited, Heavy Engineering Division, Gr. Floor, G1 Bldg, Gate-1, Saki Vihar Road, Powai, MUMBAI – 400072 on 24 February 2010.

2. Exploded view of AUV

View of AUV in water

3. Specifications of the AUV:

4. Publications and articles related to this AUV:

• Elgar Desa,  R. Madhan, P. Maurya,  “Potential of AUVs with sensor payloads as new generation ocean data platforms, “Current Science”,  May 2006
• E.S. Desa, P. Maurya, R. Madhan, G. Navelkar, E. Desa., “Environmental monitoring of the coastal zone by robot platforms.”, International Workshop on Underwater Robotics - sustainable management of marine ecosystems and environmental monitoring- IUWR 2005, November 9 - 11, Genoa, Italy.
• R. Madhan, Elgar Desa, S. Prabhudesai, , L. Sebastiao,  Antonio Pascoal, Ehrlich Desa, A. Mascarenhas,  Pramod  Maurya, G. Navelkar, S. Afzulpurkar and S. Khalap, “ Mechanical design and development aspects of a small AUV – MAYA” , 7th IFAC conference in MCMC, 20-22 Sept 2006, Lisbon
• Maurya, P.; Desa, E.; Pascoal, A.; Barros, E.; Navelkar, G.S.; Madhan, R.; Mascarenhas, A.A.M.Q.; Prabhudesai, S.; Afzulpurkar, S.; Gouveia, Ashwin; Naroji, S.; Sebastiao, “Control of the Maya AUV in the vertical and horizontal planes: Theory and practical results” , 7th IFAC conference in MCMC, 20-22 Sept 2006, Lisbon.
• Desa, E.; Madhan, R.; Maurya, P.; Navelkar, G.S.; Mascarenhas, A.A.M.Q.; Prabhudesai, S.; Afzulpurkar, S.; Bandodkar, S. “The small Maya AUV - Initial field results” International Ocean Systems.: 11(1); 2007; 6-8.

5. Data obtained from the AUV:
The AUV has been tested on numerous occasions for operations at sea and in freshwater reservoirs. Figures below show the data collected from the AUV missions.

Figure: Temperature Vs Depth obtained during the sea trials in the Arabian Sea

Figure: Dissolved Oxygen Vs Depth obtained in the  trials at the Idduki reservoir

 Figure: AUV underwater performing a mission