Competition
Autonomous underwater robotics is an exciting challenge in engineering, which participants get to experience at SAUVC. The competition is great learning ground for participants to experience the challenges of AUV system engineering and develop skills in the related fields of mechanical, electrical and software engineering.
Mentorship
Participants will have access to mentors and support. Teams will be assigned liaisons who will be able to provide mentorship and technical guidance as the teams work on designing and building their AUVs. SAUVC emphasises outreach, learning and skill development and we want to ensure everyone learns and grows through the course of SAUVC.
Guest speakers
The competition will also feature workshops and lectures from world renowned experts in the field of marine robotics and autonomous underwater systems to inspire participants with new ideas and techniques to solve challenges and build an interest in careers related to marine robotics.
Get-together
The competition is also about meeting others like us, who are also interested in underwater robotics and autonomous systems, to get to know one another, to share ideas and make connections.
The SAUVC competition challenges participant teams to build an AUV which can perform given tasks. These tasks are simulations of tasks operational AUVs would have to be able to perform. The competition is held in a swimming pool and each team's AUV will have to perform 4 tasks. The speed and accuracy at which the AUV performs tasks will be used to decide the winner of the competition.
The tasks involve four widely faced challenges underwater such as AUV navigation, visual identification, acoustic localization and robotic manipulation.
Detailed explanation of the various tasks of the competition and rules are in the Rulebook v6.0.0.
Detailed explanation of the various tasks of the competition and rules will be published shortly.
The competition is open to participants from all over the world. A team may consist of up to 11 participants including faculty supervisors. At least half of the participants must be non-professionals (students, hobbyists, hackerspace members, etc) at the time of registration.
We are very grateful and would like to say a big Thank You to all the sponsors of SAUVC over the years.
The sponsors for SAUVC 2026 are below. Interested in encouraging underwater robotics? Contact us through our website
