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Welcome AUVC 2026!

· 2 min read
Mohamed Saad Ibn Seddik, Dr.Eng.
Mohamed Saad Ibn Seddik, Dr.Eng.
CEO of blkSAIL

Hello Submarine Strategists,

Welcome to the 2026 edition of the MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge. This year’s mission: two autonomous submarines will search for, chase, and “torpedo” each other in the pool: by firing flashes of light instead of anything explosive. Think underwater game of tag meets laser tag, powered entirely by your code.

Your job is to program these vehicles, not build them. The hardware is ready; your Python will bring it to life. You’ll design behaviors that let each sub explore, detect the other vehicle, plan and execute chase strategies, and decide when to fire its light torpedoes — all while dealing with imperfect sensors and a noisy aquatic arena.

Over the next weeks, you’ll:

  • Use Python to control underwater robots and integrate sensor data into real‑time decisions.
  • Work with autonomy concepts like perception, planning, and multi‑agent behavior in a constrained environment.
  • Run missions in a pool where two robots actively try to outsmart each other, not just follow a script.

You’re not just here to complete exercises; you’re here to run a miniature robotics campaign. You’ll debug behaviors when your sub decides the wall is more interesting than its opponent, tune parameters so it chases instead of spins, and learn to interpret what the data is really saying instead of what you wish it said.

A few expectations and pro‑tips:

  • Treat this as a real engineering project: keep your code organized, document your decisions, and make life easier for your teammates (and future you).
  • Embrace failure as information. Every “why did it do THAT?” moment is a clue about your assumptions and your system.
  • Ask questions: about autonomy, sensing, control, and how these ideas scale from pool‑robots to full‑scale ocean systems.

By the end of AUVC 2026, you’ll have built up solid Python chops, a practical feel for autonomous systems, and at least one legendary story involving a robot, a pool, and a perfectly timed flash‑torpedo hit.

See you in the deep end,

Mohamed Saad Ibn Seddik, Dr.Eng.