Course syllabus

Formal course data

Eligibility and prerequisites

• General eligibility for advanced-level studies at Chalmers.
• Background in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control systems or applied physics.
• Basic CAD or programming skills are recommended; laboratory experience is advantageous.

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, the student shall be able to:

• critically and creatively identify and/or formulate advanced technical problems;
• handle open-ended problems under uncertainty and with incomplete information;
• lead multidisciplinary product development using a systematic design process;
• communicate technical work in English, orally and in writing;
• explain fundamental principles of underwater propulsion, including Reynolds and Strouhal numbers;
• design morphing soft-fin mechanisms that balance flexibility against propulsive efficiency;
• construct a functional microswimmer prototype using the FUSE lab and the Marine Technology lab (see the note on vehicle scale below);
• compare conventional PID control with machine-learning-based control strategies;
• analyse water tank experimental data to extract performance metrics.

Content and organisation

The course sits at the interface between underwater vehicles, robotics, biology and oceanography. It is project-driven: teams own defined subsystems of one shared vehicle, coordinated through lectures, weekly team meetings with the teaching team, and monthly cross-team reviews. Prototyping uses the FUSE lab; water-tank testing uses the M2 Marine Technology Lab. Design and simulation gates precede manufacturing.

Examination — compulsory elements

• Group contract and preliminary project plan (at course start).
• Final technical report following Chalmers thesis guidelines.
• Oral presentation, 20 minutes (15 min presentation + 5 min questions).

Clarification of the palm-size design objective

The original course concept identified a palm-size microswimmer, with a body size on the order of 100 × 100 × 100 mm, as the intended development target. During detailed course preparation — including a technical feasibility review of commercially available components, manufacturing possibilities, waterproofing requirements, and system-integration constraints — it became clear that directly constructing a fully functional underwater robot at this scale would not be realistic as the initial stage of the course.

At the palm scale, the pressure housing, battery, electronics, sensors, actuators, cable connections and sealing system must all be highly integrated or specially developed. Attempting these developments simultaneously would create substantial technical risk and could prevent students from establishing and testing a complete working system within the available course period.

The course therefore adopts a staged development strategy. Students first reproduce and understand a functional underwater robot at a larger scale, using an existing open-source system as a reference, and then investigate how the structure and subsystem layout can be progressively compacted toward the original palm-size objective. The palm-size microswimmer remains the longer-term design direction; the course emphasises a technically justified pathway toward that goal rather than assuming that full miniaturisation can be achieved immediately.

Relation to the operational course pages

This page reproduces the official course syllabus published on the Chalmers website, with one deliberate adjustment: the vehicle scale. The official syllabus specifies a palm-size microswimmer prototype, whereas the learning outcome on this page states the prototype requirement without the palm-size qualifier, for the reasons set out above. All other content follows the official syllabus, and the version published on the Chalmers website remains the formal document. The operational interpretation — phases, work packages, gates and deadlines — lives in the module pages of this Canvas room. The clarification above explains how the vehicle-scale decision emerged during course preparation; the full technical position is on Course Platform and Vehicle Scale: Our Position.