Latis II Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle Technical Report

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attling leaks. Hours of research was conducted into finding better waterproof connectors. When searching for connectors finally failed to produce anything useful and legally sold in the US, the team switched tactics and decided to run the wires through air fittings which were then tapped into the walls of the ROV body. When the wire was sealed into this fitting and the fitting threaded into the body, a water tight seal was made and still allowed for the fitting and component to be removed if necessary. PROGRAMMING By using the NI C-rio early on in the prototype process the UMaine ROV Team was able to encounter and fix as much of the programming bugs as possible before beginning work in the more complicated Latis II. Troubleshooting the ROV control program involved either consulting the team’s resident LabVIEW expert or contacting the technical support provided by National Instruments. With both of these resources, the team was able to effectively diagnose and solve significant programming problems. By far the most commonly used troubleshooting technique was teamwork. Working as a team allowed the most productive use of time and netted the best results. Once ideas were considered and then decided upon the problem usually was solved by utilizing other internal and external resources. LESSON LEARN/ SKILLS GAINED The problem with manufacturing that the team learned is one that is undoubtedly inherent in any design project and definitely provides room for new skills to be gained. The lesson learned is when relying on a company to produce vital 16 LATIS II TECHNICAL REPORT components, it is critical that the team monitors the progress closely to avoid delays. If there are problems, the team can decide early on what actions need to be taken to resolve the issue. As noted before, having learned from the time needed to complete the parts for Latis I, the team decided to send out Latis II parts to a third party. The company, however, was unable to deliver the parts as scheduled, or to the specifications requested. This left the ROV team with less material, money and time with which to troubleshoot and complete their design. Fortunately, there were good results from this situation. The team stepped up to the plate and took control of their product. Team members worked day and night on the manual milling and turning machines as well as the CNC. Parts were retrieved from the manufacturer and finished in the team’s lab. Team members learned how to machine parts and to refabricate already manufactured components. Time-management became even more of a priority as the team had even less time than anticipated so they worked to gain lab access during the nights and weekends. In all, the team learned a valuable lesson in taking control of their own design and gained skills in machining, quality control, and time management. Furthermore, the team gained skills in diplomacy and professional correspondence in working with the manufacturing company to fix the problem. Through teamwork and dedication, the UMaine ROV Team was able to overcome the problem and still produce a quality product in the time available for the project.
FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS Throughout the entire design process the ROV Team had to continuously change, alter and in some cases completely remove or disregard design components and ideas. Some of these ideas, if they had been followed through, could have made great designs. The following are some design ideas the team would like to see either pursued and integrated or improved upon. PROPULSION Early in the design of the prototype the team battled with designing the best propulsion system for the ROV. Ideas ranged from belts and flippers to hydraulics and pneumatics. One idea that continuously surfaced, however, is that of dynamic thrusters. With dynamic thrusters, the same thrusters from Seabotix could be used but instead of being statically mounted to the body of the ROV they would be mounted to rotatable plates such that they could turn up to 360deg. This would allow a single thruster to control at least two axis of motion instead of just one when statically mounted. Servos or any kind of motor electrically driven or otherwise could be used to rotate the thruster. The team would be able to literally double their effectiveness with each thruster and therefore cut the number of thrusters, and motor drivers in half. The downside of this is making the device that would have to turn the thruster and then integrating the extra control specifications into the control program. 17 LATIS II TECHNICAL REPORT WATERPROOFING Being one of the most, if not the most, difficult problems plaguing the ROV team; waterproofing techniques and design could be improved. If the design had taken into account more water tight compartments and less thruwall connections the waterproofing would have been much easier. Furthermore, using less electronics would also help in this respect (i.e. hydraulic or pneumatic propulsion/power system that is already inherently waterproof). KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID (KISS) Even with the team’s best efforts to try and make the design as simple as possible without compromising function, the project still proved to be far too complicated to complete in the time allotted and with the people and resources available. The team would like to see future teams drastically cut down on the complexity of the manufactured parts and the overall design. Although many pre-made parts were researched and considered for the ROV design, a huge number of components still had to be custom fabricated. Taking less time and effort to make custom parts would leave more time to practice with the ROV and prepare it for competition.
Page 1 and 2: 2010 Latis II Underwater Remotely O
Page 3 and 4: BUDGET/ EXPENSE 3 LATIS II TECHNICA
Page 6 and 7: SURFACE CONTROLS MAIN CONTROLS Lati
Page 8 and 9: 8 Figure 8: Onboard ROV Electronics
Page 10 and 11: 10 Read 3D Navigator Convert 3D nav
Page 12 and 13: 12 Figure 13: Arms Collecting a Cru
Page 14 and 15: TETHER The tether supplies Latis II
Page 18 and 19: LOIHI SEAMOUNT The Loihi seamount i
Page 20: REFERENCES School of Ocean and Eart

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