Run 2 highlights

Here's the best of our second run on Saturday (final score was 250/300).

Success!

The Florida Regional competition was held today at the YMCA Aquatic & Family Center, and Tachyon III placed first, with a best mission score of 250!  Pictures and video will be uploaded soon.  
We'll be moving on to internationals, which will be held in the same location in two months' time.  
Congratulations to the entire team, and thank you to all our sponsors!

Rice Nozzles

 A few months ago, we designed some nozzles based on the Rice profile to mazimize the thrust produced by our thrusters.  We finally got those nozzles printed (courtesy of Nikolai at the University of Alabama), and, although we haven't done any quantitative tests of them yet, they seem to have given Tachyon III a significant boost in power and performance.

Tachyon swims!

  On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to get Tachyon III some time in a full depth pool, and we were amazed by the handling capabilities of the robot.  We'd like to thank Trinity Prep Aquatics for giving us access to their pool to test our ROV. 

Tachyon III is in the Water!

After months of planing, design, fabrication, and testing, Tachyon III finally entered the water last Tuesday, March 13th.  We've been astounded at the increase in maneuverability and speed in this year's bot, and we're excited for the next few weeks of practicing.  Today, we began that process, putting a 5 hour run on Tachyon during an 11 hour meeting.  Over the next few days, Sam and I will be testing and fine tuning Tachyon for our first practice rounds.  Please stay tuned for more videos, photos, and posts as we get closer to regionals!

-Michael Ikegami

Update: 3/6/2011

With the regional competition approaching in April, Team Tachyon is only a few days away from having a competition-ready robot.  Over the past few weeks, Kieran has been designing and manufacturing a gripper that is ready for mounting on our frame, and Michael and Sam have been finishing and troubleshooting the control and waterproofing systems.  Our control system is now fully functional and installed onto our frame, and  all that we need to get this robot moving is to install our propellers.

Below are some videos we took of our control system in action.  The first shows our X axis and Z axis motors functioning simultaneously (and Sam consequently complaining about the sound).  The second, I think, is more exciting; it shows each motor on the X axis being controlled individually--a new feature this year in our control system.  Thanks for following us this year, and please stay in tune for more videos, pictures, and posts when we get our bot in the water in the next few weeks.

-Michael Ikegami and Kieran Wilson

Getting there...

Everything is starting to come together;  the electrical systems were finished a few weeks ago, the frame was done shortly thereafter.  The waterproofing is just about done as well, and we should be able to pull everything together with in the next week or so.  Last year's frame is on the left; the longer, slightly narrower frame on the right is the basis of Tachyon III.

-Kieran Wilson