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The Virginia Tech 475 AUV was developed to support a wide variety of research and development objectives.  With six AUVs available, they are most often used for experiments in collaborative control and distributed data fusion.

The 475 was also designed to easily integrate a variety of payloads.  Hard points are available for mounting smaller external sensors. Payloads have included environmental sensors, a towed acoustic array, magnetometer, and a forward looking sonar.

Physical characteristics

• Lenght: 34"
• diameter: 4.75"
• Mass: 18.3 lbs.
• Moving mass: 9.9 lbs; 0.5 inch displacement

Intrumentation and Electronics

• Depth
• Gyro-stablized heading, pitch, and roll
• Prop speed, motor current
• Spare analog and digital instrumentation channels

Navigation

• Time-synchronized acoustic navigation for AUV to AUV ranging, and AUV to chase boat ranging
• Transponder-based acoustic navigation
• GPS (surface) with gyro-aided dead reckoning.

Software/Processor

• x86-compatible single-board computer
• Linux operatoring system
• Database server architecture utilizing TCP/IP client/server connections; this architecture facilitates the use of mission-level software modules that are developed by other parties.