This week is a busy week for the team as we are getting closer to our big movie night on November 6th at the Michigan Theatre in Jackson at 7:00 PM. We have scheduled multiple meetings with news stations, radio interviews and phone interviews.

The contact board

The October schedule

The November schedule

Monday at 10:30 AM our GoPro video was launched! They made a video of our team and last years expedition to Palau. Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8EJnqkQGN8

Chloe and Maddy during their interview

The  "newbies" giving their interview
Jamie Krusinski, Becca Ensign, and Jamie Cool

 Yesterday Haley Nelson from WILX Channel 10 News came and visited our classroom. She interviewed the Palau Team and the story should air next week sometime! We will keep you updated.

Jeremy, Tyler, and Mitch working on the ROV on camera

Haley filming the marketing team

Haley Nelson and the Palau Team

 On Wednesday the team had a video conference with GoPro. They showed them the Remote Camera System prototype for the Manta Project. This project consists of four females that have designed and engineered their own Remote Camera System to station on the bottom of the Pacific. They will be studying the movement of Manta Rays along with identifying them. Over the course of several years the migration of Manta Rays has changed drastically along the coast of the Palau Islands. The female students will discover first-hand the pattern of Palauan Manta Ray’s.

The marketing team showing off their prototype

The students will be taking their Remote Camera Systems and stationing them on the coral reefs and ocean floor for a five day period to track and study the movement of Manta Rays. The cameras have been designed to take a picture every 10 seconds and run from 6am-6pm each day. After the students are done with their first experiment they will study their findings and report them to Manta ID Project in Palau and the Governor of Ngardmau State. They will also be recommending their findings to the National and State Governments on site management and demonstrate how to observe and study the mantas around tourist sites without using invasive tagging methods. The mission will be taking place while we are in Palau sometime between March 26th and April 12th 2015.

The video conference of us speaking to Kelly Leggoe

Manta Rays are a huge tourist attraction around the Palau Islands. They are a subclass of sharks, fish, rays, and skates. They are part of the family of Devil Ray’s. The range from 10ft-16ft in width, have a lifespan of over 30 years, and have natural predators of large sharks and killer whales. The threats they face in Palau are boat strikes, mooring lines, and tourism pressure. The feed alone or in groups, on small planktonic organisms, and occasionally small fish. Manta are also a huge part of cleaning stations. Cleaning stations on the reef are used for satisfying the grooming of fish from parasitic species. Mantas spend hours each day getting cleaned.

 

Photo of a Manta Ray taken by Richard Brooks

Our Remote Camera system uses a go pro camera to shoot time lapse over a 5 day period. The small green circuit board is a time lapse intervalometer that we are using to program one camera shot every ten seconds. We also plan on programming it to only run from 6am to 6pm each day. We replaced the standard go pro battery with a 12 volt battery elimantor from cam-do.com

Our camera system with the time lapse intervalometer
from cam-do.com

Our Remote Camera System Prototype

On Monday our never before seen GoPro video of our last expedition will be posted up on Facebook so check it out and share it with your friends! We will also try to post the link on here in our next blog.

Week 6 & 7: School Board Meeting, pneumatic cylinders, lasers and Manta Project.

Last week team member, Collin Curtis worked on the pneumatic cylinders for the claw/gripper on his ROV and was figuring out the C++ Programming. He is currently trying the make the cylinders actuate.

Collin programming the cylinders

Madi Howard positioning the lasers on E Chassis system

Last week the Open ROV team collaborated the lasers to use them for measurements. These lasers will be used for more precise measurements which will benefit them in the competition because they will get exact measurements instead of an estimation.

Faith Whitt measuring the distance of the lasers from the ROV
to make sure they are aligned.

Becca Ensign and Jamie Cool drilling a hole
for the wiring

Becca Ensign and Maddy Armstrong attaching
the GoPro to our camera system

Many of our followers may have heard that our 5 Palau girls are engineering camera systems to monitor the movement of Manta Rays in Palau. They plan on placing these cameras at the Manta Cleaning Stations to shoot time lapse photos for 5 days at a time. As of now they have come up with a basic prototype but still have to program a timer, find the correct batteries and water proof the entire system.

The girls with the finished prototype

The team presenting.

Last night, October 13, 2014 the Palau Team and Open ROV Team presented at the School Board Meeting. Th Palau team explained the fundraising and updated ROV systems while the Open ROV Team presented their ROV.

5th Week of Robotics, visiting Heritage Elementary

Cade Wright and Madi Howard working on the Open ROV.

The biggest accomplishment of the week in our 3rd block robotics class would be the Open ROV team finally got their initial Open ROV into the water. Team Leader Cade Wright says, "It is such an accomplishment for my team because they are finally getting to see all their work come together." The link for the video of their ROV being put in the water for the first time is posted below.

The next step in the class is going to be for Cade to teach the girls, Madi and Faith, how to do some programming so they will be more help in the upcoming steps of their project.

Madi Howard and Faith Whitt constructing their ROV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5kb0hzGaOg

Sam Nichols and Jake Chapman working on the film festival video.

While the three team members have been working on this, the fourth team member Sam Nichols has been doing more work with the GoPro footage. He and another classmate, Jake Chapman, have begun their work on a video that they will be entering in the San Francisco International Ocean Film Festival.

The engineers from the Palau team this week visited the elementary school on Tuesday and Wednesday to teach the students how to build the ROV in a Bucket Kits.

Jamie K. taking selfies with the students

Attaching thrusters to his ROV

Adding their ballasts to their ROV

This year our 3rd block Advanced Underwater Robotics Team is made up of 27 students 9th-12th grade.

All 27 students of our 3rd block.

Our 2014-2015 Palau Team

This year our Palau team is made up of 10 students, and we are currently fundraising to make our 4th consecutive trip to Palau this spring. While the marketing team has been dealing with donations and thank you letters, the engineering team has begun with constructing an open ROV and are now designing a whole new robot for us to take to Palau this year.

Philip McCleer testing the 3-D Printer

Maddy Armstrong and Becca Ensign working on sending out
thank you letters

Jamie Cool addressing thank you letters

Jeremy Spink and Mitch Lilley taking apart the old ROV
and looking at the connections

This is our 2014/2015 Open ROV Team. So far this semester they have begun assembling the initial Open ROV. One of the team members, Sam Nichols, has also been making a time lapse of the build using our GoPro cameras.

Cade Wright preparing the wire for the ROV

 

Our Open ROV Competition Team

   




                                       

Madi Howard and Faith Whitt assembling the
initial Open ROV.

This competition team has begun the construction of their Vector Triggerfish design. Once they are done with that, they will design a new type of frame.

Competition Team #1

                         

Colin Lilley setting up the control panel
for his ROV

Jessi Taylor putting Tech Flex over the tether

                                     








This competition team is constructing the Ortho TriggerFish design. Once they are done they are also going to be constructing a new frame for their ROV.

Competition Team #2

                                                                                 

Mason Gee-Montgomery putting the shrouds
together

         

Liam Corby soldering the ROV wires

                     

                                                          

Our 2014-2015 Square One Team

This team of 4 is our Square One Team. So far this year they have built the Ortho Triggerfish ROV. These students will eventually build an ROV to compete in the Square One Underwater Innovative Vehicle Design Challenge.

Collin Curtis and Competition Team Leader, Emma Morris writing
their team's technical report

Glen Pulk wiring his teams control system

MATE International Competition

I (Karly Kruger) just got back from the MATE International Competition, and I am still awestruck at what I saw and the people I was able to meet.

The ROV's at this competition were extremely innovated and well made. Each team had a different design and different outlook on how to go about making their ROV. A few examples of the different innovated designs were Nova Scotia's helmet/camera system. You put the helmet on and as you moved your head back and forth the camera also moved. One of the teams from Vladivostok, Russia had a material on their ROV that changed color when there was a leak in the ROV. With all the technology there was bound to be issues, and as I walked around I realized a lot of the team had variations of the same problem.  I think it was reassuring to all teams to see that they weren't alone and every one else struggled with complications. 

Alpena Community College ROV

Team Aquaphotos' ROV
(Egypt)

Aside from the actual ROV competition the social dynamic was completing amazing. All these students, which were ages 13-25, and were from Russia to Delaware were able to talk to one another. This to me was such a big part of the competition, and I was truly touched by everyone I talked to. Talking to all these people proved to me that the learning didn't just stop after the ROV's were done it continued in many more ways.

Team Screwdrivers
(India) 

Amr from team M.I.A
(Egypt)

Konstantin Borisov and I
(Russia) 

I am so thankful to be able to be part of something like this. The MATE team and the Thunder Bay Sanctuary worked so hard to make sure every team and volunteer were taken care of.  I am truly thankful and appreciative of everything I was able to experience and do in the last few days. 

-Karly Kruger