Mission Specifications for the 2012 MATE ROV Competition

Mission specifications for the 2012 MATE ROV competition have been posted online by the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center!  Tachyon Robotics will be working over this weekend to determine how to overcome the challenges associated with this year's mission specifications.  Stay tuned for more details as we work to create possible solutions to the tasks presented in the link below.

http://www.materover.org/rov_competition_files/2012/2012_COMPETITION_MANUAL_FINAL.pdf

-Michael Ikegami

The ROV to beat.

Above are some photos and a video of last year's ROV in action. This was the first year we incorporated semiconductor technology into the design of our control system and the difference was astounding! The maneuverability of last year's ROV allowed us to perform practice rounds in record breaking time. This year, we want to make our ROV even more maneuverable. Not only are we working to optimize the PWM frequency (which allows us to speed up and slow down the ROV in a manner more compatible with our motors and transistors), but we're also completing a control system that gives us a seamless transition between moving and turning, increasing our maneuverability, and hopefully, decreasing our mission time.

-Michael Ikegami

Pressure housing

The pressure housing has been machined out of UHMWPE, with the generous assistance of Dr Stuart Lilie. Without the time and equipment of Dr. Lilie, this pressure housing would have been nearly impossible to produce. Thanks to him, we have been able to produce a beautiful pressure housing, which should keep our electronics nice and dry.

-Kieran Wilson

New Circuit Board

When I stumbled across these small, dual channel, "metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors" (MOSFETs) online, I knew I had to use them somehow. As the Electrical engineer for our team, I've set myself on a mission to make each ROV faster, more efficient, more economical, and more compact. This new circuit board is a great example of that. These three dual channel surface mounted MOSFETs are almost half the price of the single channel MOSFETs we used for last year's Relay switching board, take up significantly less space (this one interfacing board does the job of three of our interfacing boards last year), and finally, the new design allows us to add an extra H-bridge on our submersible board, giving us a ROV that should be more maneuverable and more efficient.

-Michael Ikegami

Pressure Housing

Here we have a mark-up of our pressure housing and its complimentary cap. The housing will contain the on-board circuitry and (hopefully) keep it dry and functioning. Two large o-rings will be used in order to better seal the housing. Both the cap and the housing will be produced on a lathe and will be made of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). UHMWPE is a tough, non-absorbent plastic and therefore well suited to our needs.

- Kieran Wilson

Electrical Schematics completed!

I've finally completed our electrical schematics for our 2012 MATE ROV bot. They were specially designed to be compact enough to fit inside a 3" pressure housing. This year I'm experimenting with all kinds of different technologies, such as surface mount devices and double layer PCBs. Electrically, this year's bot will be similar to last year's. We will have an "extended H-Bridge" (direction control bottomside and potentiation control topside) controlling our Z-Axis motor group, individual H-Bridges bottomside for both of the X axis motors (A new feature on this year's bot), as well as H-Bridge style control for the manipulator (which allows us to throttle speed to our heart's content). All in all, the control system for this year's project will allow us to achieve maximum controlablity and speed, while being the most compact control system Tachyon Robotics has ever created (albeit the third). We've also created room for 3 sensors and a pressure sensor, which gives us a lot of leeway to incorporate the special tools required to solve the tasks provided by MATE. All essential electrical work should be done in the next 2 weeks!

- Michael Ikegami

TACHYON MK. III

Tachyon Robotics has started building their third ROV for the MATE ROV competition.

Even after a crippling waterproofing failure at the 2011 Florida Regional, we've decided to press on with the development of this year's bot. The first steps: machining a pressure housing out of 4" UHMW, designing new compact boards for this year's control system, and making nozzles and motors. In the picture above, we see Evan Boyar/Terry working diligently on designing the rice nozzles in.. ahem, angry birds.

We're looking forward to having our ROV ready by the end of summer, and we even hope to take it out to some springs for the sake of "science." The next few weeks will be fast-paced, but we can't wait to have our bot working, and to start practice for the 2012 MATE ROV competition.

-Michael Ikegami