Held since 2006, SAUC-E challenges the next generation of engineers to design and build an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) capable of performing realistic missions.
The event is designed to encourage students to think about underwater technology and related applications while fostering innovation and technology. It also aims at getting young engineers and scientists to consider careers in the field.
Participating teams must consist of 75% student members and have a faculty advisor.

From 2010 SAUC-E has been held in La Spezia (Italy) at NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC), now Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE).
After the success of the three first editions, competitors have once again in 2013 the possibility to deal with real life conditions (i.e. limited visibility and salty water) since the competition will be held for the fourth time outside at the CMRE waterfront, which is a sheltered harbor.

The Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), formerly known as NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) is in fact pleased to announce that it will host the SAUC-E competition for the fourth time in a row. The dates are June 28 – July 05, 2013.

Download the 2013 mission rules and some useful documents for the preparation for SAUC-E’13.

For media enquires please contact CMRE PAO.

SAUC-E '12 winners

École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) du Quebec triumphed over 14 other teams to win the SAUC-E ‘12, the 7th Student Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge - Europe. The team’s AUV named “SONIA” obtained the highest score successfully completing a number of mission tasks. The 2nd prize went to University of Luebeck from Germany (2011 Champion) with its AUV “Hanse”, while ENSTA Bretagne – team Sauc’isse and Sardine from France took home the 3rd prize, closely followed by team AVALON from University of Bremen who entered the final phase as “best qualifier”.

The other prizes were awarded to the University of Florence team that won the “Rookie of the year Award”, the University of Luebeck with team SMART-E that won the “Design & Innovation Award”, the Cambridge University that won the “Engineering Award”, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria that won the “Impress the Judges Award”, the ESIEA Paris with Aquatis that won the “Best Use of Resources Award”, the ESIEA Paris with team Ryujin that won the “Affordability Award”, the University of West England that won the “Smart Technology Award”, Heriot-Watt University that won the “Multinational Award”.

The competition was hosted for the third time, from 6 to 13 July 2012, by the Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), formerly known as the NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) at its waterfront, in La Spezia, Italy. Each year SAUC-E challenges multidisciplinary University teams (consisting at least of 75% students members) to design and build Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) capable of performing realistic missions. The student AUVs must perform a series of tasks autonomously in a sheltered sea harbour, with no control, guidance or communication from a person or from any off-board computer including GPS systems. The competition encourages students to think about underwater technology and related applications while fostering innovation and technology in cooperation within the NATO countries; SAUC-E was in fact identified as an event that matched CMRE’s mission to use AUVs as new way of thinking and in the spirit of Smart Defence.

The 2012 edition saw the debut of the new NATO Engineering Support Team (NEST) for Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe and of the new SAUC-E Collaborative Platform, both aimed at strengthening scientific knowledge and engineering competences in the spirit of Smart Defence. This year’s SAUC-E event also partnered with the Marine Robotic System of Self-Organizing, Logically Linked Physical Nodes (MORPH) European Project summer school, with top international researchers giving lessons to students.

“It is always a pleasure to see the students of today, who are the scientists of tomorrow, stretch their minds, explore new technologies and find innovative ways to solve common problems and engage challenges placed before them." said Mr. Andy Pickup, CMRE Deputy Director."This year, as before, all teams performed admirably and the competition was fierce. Overall the whole event was a great success".

The first three winners’ prizes for the main competition are 3000, 2500, 2000 Euros to be used by the team to improve their equipment for future competitions. Special awards have been released also to École Polytechnique and ENSTA Bretagne with team CISSAU that impressed the judges with their creativity, as well as University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. All the other teams received 750 Euros each to encourage their work.

See the complete SAUC-E '12 photo gallery on Facebook:
- teams at work
- groups photos
- award ceremony.

Download the 2012 AUV & Awards picture.

Watch the NATO channel TV video on SAUC-E '12: part 1 and part 2.

SAUC-E is online: follow it at CMRE website and on Facebook!

Discover the new Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe (SAUC-E) Collaborative Platform where the students from the participating teams, professors, AUV enthusiasts, government and industry partners, sponsors can share ideas and software. The goal is to increase the state-of-the-art in the AUV technology by improving platforms, autonomy, and cognition of the AUVs that participate in the SAUC-E competition.
This wiki web site forum encourages the students to post valuable comments, questions, answers, documents, software and allows for rating of the responses which will be used by the judges in giving discretionary points during the competition.
There is no better stimulation for the students to participate than the fact that they can increase their chance of winning by yet another mean!

Discover the new NATO Engineering Support Team (NEST) for SAUC-E to go beyond the state of the art in AUV technology!

SAUC-E 12 Organisers are pleased to announce that the event this year is being supported by Tritech who are offering a 50% Educational Discount to students on the SAUC-E competition (on the condition that all items purchased are not for resale).
Teams are encouraged to contact Tritech directly and quote SAUC–E 12 in order to receive their discounts.

Current News

27.03.2013

The 2013 mission rules have been published.

02.08.2012
SAUC-E '12 video (part 1 and part 2) has been posted by NATO Channel TV.
13.07.2012
ETS-Team Sonia wins SAUC-E '12 at CMRE.
06.07.2012
SAUC-E '12 starts at CMRE, La Spezia.
04.07.2012
The definitive programme and the logistic info sheet have been published.

23.06.2012
The useful information sheet has been published.

20.06.2012
The acoustic communication protocol has been posted.
30.05.2012
SAUC-E is pleased to publish the definitive list of teams participating in the 2012 edition:

- École Polytechnique,

- École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) du Quebec,

- ENSTA Bretagne – CISSAU,

- ENSTA Bretagne – SAUC’ISEE,

- ESIEA Paris – Aquatis,

- ESIEA Paris – Ryujin,

- Heriot-Watt University, University of Bremen,

- University of Cambridge,

- University of Florence,

- University of Genoa,

- University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria - AVORA,

- University of Luebeck – Team 1,

- University of Luebeck – Team 2,

- University of West England.
11.05.2012
The admin notice has been posted.

29.04.2012
The NATO Engineering Support Team (NEST) for SAUC-E has been launched.
13.04.2012
The new Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge-Europe (SAUC-E) Collaborative Platform have been published.
28.02.2012
SAUC-E '12 competition updates have been posted.

28.02.2012
Entries continue to roll in for this year’s competition: the following Universities have sent in their ‘Intent to complete’ form or have expressed an interest in joining us at NURC for the 2012 running of SAUC–E.

- two teams from the ENSTA Bretagne, France

- Università Studi Firenze, Italy

- Ecole Polytechnique, France

- University of the West of England, UK

- Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

- Team SONIA (Système d'opération nautique intelligent et autonome) from École de technologie supérieure in Montreal, Canada.

15.02.2012
The new intent to compete form and the Mission Rules 2012 have been published.

03.02.2012
Tritech support announcement has been published: a 50% Educational Discount to students on the SAUC-E competition available.

30.01.2012
SAUC-E is pleased to welcome 2 new Teams to the 2012 competition:

- The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, also known as the ULPGC (Spanish Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) located in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

- Team SONIA (Winners of the 2011 AUVSI & ONR’s International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition), école de technologie supérieure part of the Université du Québec system. Specialized in applied teaching in engineering and technology transfer to companies, it teaches engineers and researchers who are recognized for their practical and innovative approach (for more: http://sonia.etsmtl.ca).

12.01.2012
The intent to compete form has been published.

26.11.2011
SAUC-E '12 accommodation note has been published.

25.11.2011
SAUC-E '12 will be held at NURC from 6 to 13 July 2012. If you want to support this worthwhile event sponsor us!
04.11.2011
DS SolidWorks Corp. would like to help sponsor student teams competing in SAUC-E with free 3-D design software.
If interested, you can go to
www.solidworks.com/SponsoredDesignContest and sign up your team.
DS SolidWorks Corp. provides software to help teams design and test their robots before they build them. DS SolidWorks Corp. is an AUVSI Foundation founding partner.

10.07.2011
SAUC-E '11 winners awarded at NURC

07.07.2011
Qualification runs start at NURC.

06.07.2011
Ongoing practice runs at NURC.

04.07.2011
SAUC-E '11 starts.