Documenting our power distribution, custom PCB stack, and sensor integration approach for the 2025-2026 vehicle.
Block diagram of the electrical system architecture
Electrical system block diagram
Power System
Our vehicle runs on a 14.8V 4S LiPo battery pack providing approximately 2 hours of operation. Power distribution is handled through a custom PCB with individual fused circuits for each subsystem.
Custom power distribution PCB layout in KiCad
Power distribution board — KiCad layout
Custom PCBs
We designed three custom PCBs this year:
Power Distribution Board — Main power routing with voltage monitoring
Sensor Hub — Aggregates data from IMU, depth sensor, and hydrophones
Thruster Controller — ESC signals and current monitoring for 8 thrusters
Assembled sensor hub PCB with IMU and pressure sensor
Sensor hub PCB assembled and tested
Sensor Suite
IMU (9-axis) for orientation
Pressure sensor for depth
2x cameras (forward + downward)
Hydrophone array for acoustic pinger localization
Communication
All subsystems communicate via ROS 2 topics over Ethernet. A tether connection is used during testing for real-time monitoring and debugging.