Projects / Dowr-1

Dowr-1

An autonomous underwater vehicle for mapping water quality, designed and built from a blank sheet.

Fig. 1 Exploded assemblyDowr is Cornish for water

Dowr-1 is where the business started, and it gave Dowr its name. It went from a blank sheet to working hardware entirely in-house. The hull was modelled parametrically and went through several FDM-printed iterations, with the electronics and mechanical parts designed around each other rather than one after the other.

Sensors sit on a modular sled that slides in on dovetail rails and connects through GX16 plugs, so a different sensor package can go in without touching the rest of the vehicle. A custom PCB designed in KiCad watches for moisture inside the hull, and the seals are checked with a vacuum leak test.

Missions run on a finite state machine written in Python. A browser-based ground station, built with Flask, Socket.IO and Leaflet, shows the vehicle on a map and streams its data live.

Purpose	Water quality mapping
Hull	Parametric CAD, FDM-printed iterations
Sensors	Modular sled, dovetail rails, GX16 connectors
Monitoring	Custom moisture-detection PCB (KiCad)
Control	Python finite state machine
Ground station	Flask, Socket.IO, Leaflet
Hull check	Vacuum leak test

Dowr-1 internals with thrusters mounted on their booms — Fig. 2 Internals and thruster booms

Side view of the Dowr-1 electronics bay and sealed tube — Fig. 3 Electronics bay and sealed tube

Dowr-1 nose cone fitted over the forward internals — Fig. 4 Nose cone over forward internals

Close-up of the Dowr-1 main electronics — Fig. 5 Main electronics, close up

Dowr-1 hull split open to show the internal structure — Fig. 6 Hull split at the service joint

Rear view of Dowr-1 showing twin thrusters — Fig. 7 Twin thrusters, rear view

Dowr-1 hull shells and printed parts laid out flat — Fig. 8 Hull shells and printed parts

Printed internal brackets and trays for Dowr-1 — Fig. 9 Printed internal structure

Need something designed and built to the same standard? Get in touch or email jacob@dowr.uk.

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