The Black Pearl is a custom made autonomous underwater vehicle developed at Mälardalen University, Sweden. It is built in a modular fashion, including its mechanics, electronics and software. After a successful participation at the RoboSub competition in 2012 and winning the prize for best craftsmanship, this year we made minor improvements to the hardware, while the focus of the robot's evolution shifted to the software part. In this paper we give an overview of how the Black Pearl is built, both from the hardware and software point of view.
Published as part of the AUVSI Foundation and ONR's 16th International RoboSub Competition, San Diego, CA