![\"Oliver](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/2024-04-28_UnderwaterRoboticsClub-1-300x200.jpg\")
And pool noodles, well, they\u2019re exactly what one might imagine, except this group of about 10 students has studied the properties of those dollar store staples beyond just using them for fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we put a pool noodle on any of our components, what happens when we send it down,\u201d Mackinnon asks. \u201cThe noodle gets compressed the deeper the water because the water pressure goes up and that wrings the air out of the noodle, making it not buoyant anymore and unusable as a flotation device. We have to use special marine flotation, which makes it more challenging and more expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The challenges of building an ROV – or remotely operated vehicle, which NOAA Ocean Exploration defines as an unoccupied, maneuverable, underwater machine – don\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n
\u201cDesigning an underwater robot is more like building a drone than something that rolls around on land,\u201d Mackinnon explains. \u201cIt has to rotate up and down and move side to side. There\u2019s buoyancy at the top to keep it level and make sure it both returns to an upright orientation and doesn\u2019t sink. Radio waves don\u2019t go through water, so you have to run a physical tether that needs to be neutrally buoyant, and waterproofing everything makes it all the more challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n
So as Mackinnon and his team no doubt get some swimming in this summer, indeed they also are thinking about Raspberry Pi and pool noodles.<\/p>\n
\u2018Teaching people how to do things\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Mackinnon started UConn\u2019s Underwater Robotics<\/a> club in spring 2023 and spent the first few months solely lining up funding from UConn\u2019s Krenicki Arts and Engineering Institute<\/a>, the National Institute for Undersea Vehicle Technology<\/a>, and the Undergraduate Student Government<\/a> before soliciting members last fall.<\/p>\n He had three goals, he says: teach members the skills they\u2019d need to build an underwater robot; give people like him a hands-on project, a place where they could get their hands dirty; and participate in the international MATE ROV Competition<\/a>, which is held annually each spring for students elementary-aged to college.<\/p>\n Back in high school, Mackinnon and his team from The Sound School in New Haven earned a high enough ranking in the MATE ROV regional competition to get to the international stage. It was fun then, he says, surely it would be fun now.<\/p>\n With 32 UConn students from majors including mechanical and computer engineering, mathematics, and molecular and cell biology \u2013 one even enrolled in the Neag School of Education \u2013 a core group of about 10 set to work, first building what they call, Minnow Bot, a 3D-printed, hand-sized, red submarine reminiscent of Rocket from the children\u2019s television show \u201cLittle Einsteins\u201d from the early 2000s.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the people who came into this club had no underwater robotics experience at all and minimal experience doing electronics and CAD,\u201d says Mackinnon, who\u2019s now the club\u2019s co-president. \u201cA significant part of this year was me teaching people how to do things because most of this is from what I learned in high school.\u201d<\/p>\n Colin Sheardwright \u201927 (ENG) says learning the 3D modeling program OnShape was his favorite part, while Joshua Okoli \u201925 (ENG) liked assembling – the measuring, cutting, fitting, sanding to get pieces into place.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so many things that go into making an underwater robot,\u201d Okoli says. \u201cThe 3D modeling, determining a parts list to order, researching where to get supplies, the computer programming to get it to operate, designing the electrical components, never mind the actual assembling of it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the testing, which we really didn\u2019t even get to,\u201d Sheardwright adds.<\/p>\n Minnow Bot was small enough to fit in a bucket, and when it passed that test, in April it explored the shallow depths of Mirror Lake.<\/p>\n As for Bigo Bot<\/strong><\/p>\n Building Minnow Bot gave the students a way to practice their newfound skills, as procuring the parts needed for the ROV they\u2019d hoped to compete with took much of the fall semester.<\/p>\n In labs at the Krenicki Institute in the School of Fine Arts<\/a>, they designed plans for a roughly 2-by-2.5-foot PVC cube, with six thrusters, stabilizing flotation, a camera, a claw arm, and a 60-foot tether \u2013 collectively and affectionately named Bigo Bot.<\/p>\n When the time came to work at soldering stations and use saws to cut PVC, they moved into the Hacklab<\/a> workspace in the College of Engineering<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mackinnon says one of the critical parts of Bigo Bot is the acrylic tube fastened in the center of the cube, which is rated for a depth of 60 meters because much like pool noodles deflate in deep water, so won\u2019t cheap plastic. The tube serves as the heart of the robot, suspending and protecting all its electrical components.<\/p>\n Penetrators run the wires out of the tube and a gasket compressed against the wires keeps out water. Mackinnon says actual waterproofing requires the use of petroleum jelly, mineral oil, and marine epoxy, each serving as a barrier to water that\u2019s desperate to push itself inside.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, Bigo Bot can pick something up and bring it to the surface. It has full range of motion and is able to turn side to side, move up and down. It can record video. It can take pictures. It\u2019s going to have a pressure sensor on it that can tell us how deep the water is and probably a thermometer too at some point,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n In the shop, it runs off a 110-volt AC current to a 48-volt DC current power supply; in the field, a car battery will power it.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many industries, many right here in Connecticut, that are looking for technology like this,\u201d Mackinnon adds. \u201cI got an internship at Electric Boat this summer, probably largely because of this club.\u201d<\/p>\n Next year is for experimenting, adding members<\/strong><\/p>\n The idea of the MATE ROV Competition is to design and build an underwater robot that functions and can perform certain tasks. It\u2019s also meant for students to design and build technology that could be marketed commercially.<\/p>\n Mackinnon says that could mean using an aluminum frame, because it doesn\u2019t rust like other metals, instead of PVC pipe to give it a more finished look. It also could mean simply painting a few components.<\/p>\n Since UConn\u2019s club, which is accepting new members, got started building Bigo Bot late in the academic year and because funding was tight \u2013 the final robot cost around $1,500 – students didn\u2019t make it to the 2024 competition. This first full year of the club was a learning year, they say.<\/p>\n And that means all the computer code they wrote to bring Bigo Bot to life can be used in the coming year, along with whatever parts they want to cannibalize, including the acrylic tube, which alone was $300. It\u2019s likely though things like the claw grabber will be redesigned.<\/p>\n \u201cNext year, we\u2019ll experiment a bit. We want to make our own thrusters,\u201d Mackinnon says, grabbing a dry erase marker to sketch out an idea he\u2019s had since high school.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a traditional thruster, the propeller spins around a central axis and the motor is inside. I want to make a propeller that spins around the outside, so inside the thruster is just completely empty. It\u2019s called a rim jet thruster.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a normal propeller setup encounters algae, for instance, it gets entwined in it. With a rim jet thruster, it\u2019s going to get sucked through and won\u2019t get wrapped around it. When Minnow Bot went in Mirror Lake, and there\u2019s lots of algae in there, it had significant trouble. Every few minutes it would get stuck, and I\u2019d have to pull it out, take the algae off, and pretty much reset it. That wouldn\u2019t be an issue with the type of thruster I want to make,\u201d Mackinnon says.<\/p>\n Sheardwright notes that being able to test the robot is a critical part of their process, one they couldn\u2019t fully realize last year because of time and place \u2013 there simply isn\u2019t a pool nearby they could use readily to test; campus pools, they initially found, require rental and come with a significant price tag.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/2024-04-28_UnderwaterRoboticsClub-2-300x200.jpg\")
![\"UConn's](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Bigo-Bot-225x300.jpg\")
![\"Oliver](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/2024-04-28_UnderwaterRoboticsClub-4-300x200.jpg\")