Tachyon’s mechanical system includes all vehicle structure, pressure vessels, and electro-mechanical actuators. All custom mechanical parts for Tachyon were designed in SolidWorks and then manufactured by CUAUV team members .
 |
The Upper Hull Pressure Vessel (UHPV) protects and supports all of the power and serial infrastructure for Tachyon. It also contains the computer and actuator control infrastructure.
More Information on Tachyon's Upper Hull Pressure Vessel |
 |
The vehicle frame supports all of the pressure vessels, actuators, and sensor mounting for Tachyon. To accommodate better control, and to be able to fit in tighter spaces, the frame is shorter and squarer than that of previous vehicles. To improve weight distribution, emphasis was placed on material selection: many members that were aluminum bar on previous vehicles were made out of ABS or Delrin plastic instead.
More Information on Tachyon's Vehicle frame. |
 |
Tachyon has a number of electro-mechanical actuators, including a solenoid activated air system to complete competition tasks such as marking dropping and off the shelf thrusters are used to move the vehicle in five degrees of freedom.
More Information on Tachyon's Actuators |
 |
Tachyon's external pressure vessels keep various electronics and sensors dry and isolated. They include the camera enclosures, which house the forward and downward facing AVT Guppy cameras; the hydrophone enclosure, which contains the electronics for the passive acoustic sensor; the sensor boom, which keeps the IMU and compass in electromagnetic isolation; and the battery pod pressure vessels, which contain the lithium-polymer batteries and charge/discharge circuitry. More Information on Tachyon's external pressure vessels |
