On the control system

Thanks to the Center for Maritime Systems (aka Davidson Lab), we have a microprocessor we are using to get things going. The TS-7200, with 2 serial ports, 2 usb ports, a 200 MHz arm processor, and under 2 Watts usage is a feasible solution, something we can at least start up on. Thanks to Dov Kruger, we may be able to use the TS-7300, which is light years better. With 10 serial ports, and an fpga programable hardware layer, this board leaves plenty of room for growth. As for now, we are developing basic scripts to load devices properly (so far a USB memory stick and a three-axis accelerometer donated from Honeywell to Dov).

Thats the update with controls so far, more to come.

Oct 7th, 2008

Today’s meeting was held in Davidson’s lab.  The group discussed the power consumption, battery set up and some issues regarding the design of the AUV.

It seems that the most up to date design has a series of flaws, mainly with the location of the thrusters.  Also the stability of the AUV was another concern that needed to be changed in the final design of the AUV.

The power subsystem group is meeting with Edward Birshards on Thursday the 9th to discuses some design idea for the power system.

Also the microprocessor team is going to start work off of the micro processor board that is beeing donated by Dov.

Solidworks Design

Check out this intial Solidworks Design – definetly some tweaks to be done, but a pretty cool start

More details in this Revised Design Report

Sept 22, 2008

We talked about different Hull Designs, thrusters, and microprocessors.

Completed status report for ME group

Met with the experts – Professor Alister Grieg and Dr Raju Datla

Set project plan and requirements

Duke Robotics – AUV Budget

Duke Robotics – AUV Budget

Bill of Materials

Mechanical Team Report

Hi,

I am Venkat and I work on the mechanical aspects of the project.

The Mechanical team needs to work on three reports for this semester. Here is the first one.

In this report we discuss the competition, the impact of the competition and our plan to win it.

Phase I Report

Discussion with Geoffrey Lake

This past Sunday, I had a 30 min conversation with Geoffrey Lake picking his brain about how he managed his Best New Entry Team at University of Colorado Boulder.  After giving me a much better idea of what we were getting into in terms of cost and organization, he emphasized  three things:

1. Perfection is the Enemy of Good Enough
2. Love your project, it’ll show and motivate others
3. and KISS – keep it simple stupid

On a more technical side, he gave us tips on seals, design, and software.

I have to say he was extremely helpful and nice, willing to answer questions and offered to let us contact him with  any other questions.  Thanks Geoffrey!!