Development and analysis of real time software for autonomous underwater vehicles

Any Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) software system is expected to be dynamic due to changes in mission goals, addition of new hardware, implementation of new algorithms, etc. Thus, for a successful AUV program, it is important to have a carefully and properly designed software architecture that is flexible enough to accommodate future changes. The AUV program in the Ocean Engineering Department of Florida Atlantic University has undergone significant development over the past one and a half years to achieve a flexible software system. This flexible architecture should also help in performing diverse kinds of AUV missions with minimal reconfiguration. The focus of this thesis work is to perform m evaluation of the past and present software systems used in our AUVs, and to describe the implementation details that were necessary for the migration of the past software system to a newer, more flexible and powerful software architecture. Another purpose of the thesis is also to describe the design philosophy behind the new architecture and its impact on the AUV program.