The ORCA AUV Team conducts system integration and autonomous navigation tests in the laboratory’s underwater.

Testing Autonomous Systems in Challenging Underwater Environments

The SAUVC competition consists of two major stages: a qualification round and a final round.

In the qualification stage, autonomous underwater vehicles must independently navigate through a designated gate, execute a turn, and pass through the gate again without any human intervention. Finalists then face a series of advanced missions, including underwater navigation, underwater communication, object retrieval, and object deployment tasks. All operations must be completed autonomously, placing significant demands on a team’s perception, control, and decision-making systems.

The competition is widely regarded as a rigorous test of underwater robotics technologies and system integration capabilities.

Building an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle from the Ground Up

The ORCA AUV Team is jointly advised by NYCU professors Kim Boon Lua and Chia-Hung Tsai from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The team brings together 12 students from the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Electronics and Electrical Engineering.

Combining computer vision, automatic control, and propulsion technologies, the students developed an autonomous underwater vehicle capable of making navigation and operational decisions in dynamic underwater environments.

According to Professor Lua, the primary goal of the competition is to encourage students to enter the field of marine robotics and to advance autonomous technologies for applications such as ocean exploration, underwater inspection, subsea operations, and search-and-rescue missions.

“Competitions like SAUVC emphasize both autonomy and system integration,” Lua said. “Completing these tasks requires teams to integrate multiple engineering disciplines into a reliable and intelligent system, making it an extremely challenging but rewarding learning experience.”

Learning Through Engineering Challenges

For the student team, the road to the competition was filled with technical obstacles. Team member Po-Shao Wu recalled that the group encountered numerous challenges during development and testing, including water leakage, failures in visual recognition systems, and insufficient localization accuracy. Through repeated testing, troubleshooting, and teamwork, the students gradually resolved these issues and improved system reliability.

“This year, many new members joined the team and were still learning how the system worked,” Wu said. “Despite the steep learning curve, everyone devoted a tremendous amount of time and effort. In the end, we completed the development, testing, and competition missions together.”

While the team narrowly missed a podium finish, its successful qualification for the finals demonstrated the growing capabilities of NYCU students in autonomous marine robotics. It highlighted the university’s commitment to hands-on engineering education and interdisciplinary innovation.

The ORCA AUV Team prepares and deploys their autonomous underwater vehicle during the 2026 SAUVC, conducting final system checks before competition missions in the pool-based test environment.