Robo Sub Day 3

[falconmaster]

Here is a summary of our experiences so far. with pics
https://picasaweb.google.com/coachfredi/AUVSITrip

After testing in the hotel pool last night, we found that we still had a power issue. When we try to drive the thrusters the power would cut out for a second and we lose all communication with the Phidget interface kit,a and subsequently the motor speed controllers. So we came us with a better solution. We put the connection for the power for the interface kit on the same power or battery as the computer. We were originally taking the power from the same bus as the thrusters. Once we changed this, all the cutting was solved.
We loaded in all our equipment and AUV into the Transdek Facility the next day at 8:30am, John Rangel, team captain signed us up for a 3pm practice slot. While everybody else set up the pits.
We charged our two SLA batteries the night before and loaded them int the AUV to test our Drive straight code in the practice pools. We also adjusted our buoyancy to be neutral. We alkso calibrated our cameras to the daylight.
After two hours we need to open the case to charge the batteries again. While this was going on we were studying other teams AUV systems and taking notes.
It took about an hour to charge the batteries. We then re-installed them and sealed the case one more time.
By this time we were making our first run in the large pool. We had not tested our depth code yet, but our time slot was available and we wanted to see what it would do. The AUV was not behaving as it was supposed to. It seemed to be always negative and while it was somewhat driving in a forward direction, is was going down to the bottom. In order to make it to semi-finals, we have to make it through the starting gate. At this point it time it does not look like we can do it. We had the AUV sitting on the bottom of the pool at 16 feet. We currently have no leaks, this is a feat in itself.
Our practice slot time was over so we headed to the practice pool. We found out that we had two of the vertical thrusters going up while the other two were going down. The reason is because we have left and right pitch propellers. Once we adjusted the values that we sent to each one we were able to go up and down. We then got the depth sensor working to control the depth of the AUV. We can now set the depth and it can stay at that depth. We were also able to go forward with a slight drift in one direction. We could not figure out why until we noticed a crack in two of the Rule Bilge pump thrusters. It looks like we have to purchase tow more thruster and replace them tonight.
There is a pool at the event hotel and the pool there is available after 8pm to 1am. We hope to go to that pool and test compass guided straight driving, so that we could go a longer distance and maintain a specific heading.
We are learning alot here and will definitely use this knowledge for the next AUV. It is really exciting seeing all these teams from all around the world.
Tomorrow is our last day to qualify for the semi finals, we feel that we have a good chance to do this now, hopefully I will be able to report that we did . Stay tuned.