ROV Team at UWM Competes in International Challenge
Don Murray (left) and Greg Oswald, members of the UWM ROV team, launch PantheROV II in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at Houston's Johnson Space Center.
The ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) Team at UWM participated in its second International ROV Competition in Houston, Texas, from June 23 to 25. For the annual competition, student teams design and build ROV to attempt an underwater mission. Each team also presents an engineering report on its vehicle to an expert panel.
ROV, like “Jason Jr.,” which scientists used to photograph the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1986, are unmanned underwater vehicles. They are typically connected to a pilot on the surface with power and communication cables, and are smaller and more maneuverable than manned submersibles.
With growing scientific, military and commercial applications for ROV, the International ROV competition gives students an opportunity to showcase their work, learn about potential careers and meet ocean engineering professionals.
This year's competition, like the 2005 event, was sponsored by the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center (MATE) and held at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory of NASA's Johnson Space Center. The teams attempted their ROV missions in the lab's 6.2 million gallon pool. The pool holds a full-scale model of the International Space Station; astronauts use it to practice working in zero gravity.
UWM's PantheROV II assembled half open for
judges' evaluation
Photos by Tom Consi
The ROV competition included teams from the U.S., Canada and China. Fifteen teams competed against UWM in the “Explorer class” for college and elite high school teams; there was also a “Ranger class” competition for high school and middle school teams.
Six UWM students traveled to Houston: Korey Verhien, Andy Schneider, Don Murray, Chris Brenny, Greg Oswald and Josh Zagorski. With the rest of the ROV Team at UWM they designed and built the mechanical parts, electrical system and operating software for the PantheROV II. Tom Consi, an associate scientist at UWM’s Great Lakes WATER Institute, whose research focuses on aquatic robotics, was the team’s mentor.
The Explorer class ROV mission simulated the assembly of an underwater cabled observatory. These observatories are built on the sea floor around a central node that is connected by cable to a power and communication source on land. A network of data collection instruments is connected to the central node.
Each team had 30 minutes for its ROV to transport a box-shaped central node from the pool deck to a protective frame 40 feet underwater. The ROV had to find the main power and communications cable on the pool floor (in the mission scenario, already strung from shore), open a door on the protective frame, and connect the cable to the central node. Next, the ROV had to locate another cable (in the scenario, the cable of a data collection instrument), guide the cable through a series of X-shaped markers and connect it to the central node.
Schneider said, “We designed our vehicle according to this basic scenario.” PantheROV II has a waterproof aluminum hull and PVC frame about two feet long (the same length as the mission’s central node). The ROV's hull houses the electronics and the main webcam behind an acrylic dome. Three other webcams attached to the frame help the ROV "see" underwater.
The pilot’s commands, and power from two car batteries, are transmitted to PantheROV II through 125 feet of cable. The team equipped the vehicle with four thrusters to navigate the pool, a mechanical arm to pick up the connecting cables and a solenoid latch to carry and release the central node.
Consi is especially impressed by the team’s design of the communication system between the pilot and the ROV. An ethernet cable connects the webcams and the vehicle’s microcontroller (its “brain”) to a laptop computer on the surface. Using software written by Schneider, the pilot controls the ROV with a video game joystick.
Funding from the Great Lakes WATER Institute, the College of Engineering and Applied Science at UWM, and the UWM Student Association, and parts donated by researchers and businesses helped the team build the ROV. Greg Barske and Randy Metzger in the WATER Institute’s instrument shop also custom-built many of PantheROV II’s parts.
On Tuesday, June 20, after months of work (the ROV team began brainstorming and designing parts last September), PantheROV II was christened with champagne, carefully packed and shipped to Houston.
The team flew to Houston on Thursday and began to reassemble the PantheROV II and prepare for their engineering evaluation and ROV mission.
Friday evening after a successful engineering presentation, the UWM team tested PantheROV II in their hotel pool. The vehicle was briefly under way, but then lost power. A series of problems including a blown fuse and “fried” electrical components kept the team working on repairs right up to their scheduled competition time on Saturday.
At launch time, the UWM ROV had only three working thrusters and unresolved electrical issues. Verhein, as pilot, managed to guide the vehicle to the pool bottom before it lost power. The team could not complete the mission.
Highest scores on the mission were received by the Eastern Edge Robotics team (also the overall winners) from Newfoundland, Canada, followed by Carl Hayden Community High School from Phoenix.
Consi said, “If you’re really serious about being a competitor, as we are, your expectations are higher, so our disappointment was high.” Despite their setbacks, Consi said, “the team worked until the very end, and maintained good spirits.” At the competition’s awards banquet and closing ceremony, Consi even saw the team sketching ideas for next year’s ROV on their napkins.
PantheROV II arrived home from Houston late last week, and the team has begun repairs. They plan to make it a working ROV for WATER Institute researchers and to train ROV pilots for next year’s international competition.
For more information about the ROV Team at UWM, contact Tom Consi (consi@uwm.edu) or see the team’s Web page at http://waterbase.glwi.uwm.edu/rovteam. The team welcomes new members, regardless of experience, who are willing to learn, work hard and have fun.
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