WP5 “AUV and manipulator development” focuses on the realization of the robotic platform in charge of transporting all the equipment necessary for executing the reference ROBUST mission. In order to simplify the design effort, a modular approach has been adopted, by exploiting, as basic composing units, two available mechatronic systems, namely the Folaga AUV and the UMA manipulator. 
The original designs of both the robotic units have been properly modified to match the mission needs and an integrating framework has been developed for integrating three Folagas, one 7 d.o.f. UMA manipulator, the LIBS system and all the other required sensing and processing devices, like a multi-beam echosounder, a DVL, two survey cameras and the laser-camera system for 3D scanning the nodule of interest.

The platform is now ready and is currently under configuration in the pool. In parallel the low-level control software in charge of controlling the basic system motion has been developed and is it also under testing in the pool.