Camilla's Blog

Day 1- 5/4/16

Today we determined our leader and blogger and divided up the construction of the ROV base. It was just a set up day.

Day 2- 5/6/16

Today my team and I worked on our "What is an ROV?" page and our "The Challenge" page. This task entailed researching ROVs and finding details about an example of an ROV used for research. I took pictures for the challenge page of the different challenges we have to complete as well as measured the hoops to determine what window we have to work in in regards to the size of our ROV. Next class we will begin constructing the base of our ROV including the frame, the motors, and the control box.

Day 3- 5/10/16

Today we got our boxes with tools and we watched safety videos about cutting and drilling PVC. I started measuring PVC pipes and started cutting them. We managed to cut all of them and tomorrow we will start drilling and putting the pieces together for the frame.

Day 4- 5/11/16
I was absent this day and my group finished the thrusters and worked on soldering for the control box. I made this up by coming in after school and drilling in the PVC pipe for the frame. It took me awhile so I wasn't able to complete this task, but I got to all of the elbows and started on the holes in the actual pipe. I made this up on 5/12/16.

Day 5- 5/13/16

Today our task was to finish our base and get our ROV working. My task was to finish the ROV frame so I drilled holes in the PVC pipe and then constructed it with Brandon's help. We need to attach the motors to our frame by next class and waterproof the wires.

Day 6- 5/19/16

Today we tested buoyancy on our ROV and to make sure that our ROV wasn't floating too much we adjusted the floaters by cutting them accordingly. We ended up cutting about half the floater off on each side and it worked well. We were able to control its movement. Now we have to decide what materials will work best to complete our challenges. We think we will use a hydraulic system and tongs but we aren't sure yet. 

Day 7- 5/20/16

Today we tried to create a hook that could grab our octopuses and the lid. We bought two hangers and attached them as hooks to either side of the ROV. It doesn't really work yet because buoyancy was affected. It got too top heavy and wasn't able to steer well so we will work on that next class. We are thinking of adding a net to the hooks.