Our team did well in the competition, qualifying for semi-finals on the first day, being the second to qualify on-site. Unfortunately, we had several electrical complications due to corrosion in our thrusters and heat in our computer hull. These problems resulted in poor semi-final runs and required days of troubleshooting to fix. Even though failures plagued us during semifinal runs, we were able to debug and successfully complete many tasks during our practice runs. Overall we placed 29th out of the 47 teams at this international competition. We placed 10th (out of 47 teams) in static judging, which includes a journal paper, introduction video, technical merit/craftsmanship, safety, and a ten minute presentation to the judges.
This year was a year of learning and building for the Underwater Robotics Club at NCSU. Several members graduated in the past year, so many younger members took on new and more responsibilities. While learning about our new responsibilities and technologies, we emphasized the importance of documentation and made detailed records of our tasks and processes for each team. This documentation will help new members quickly become familiar with the club. In addition, this year we implemented a new passive sonar acoustic system. The acoustic system worked well in testing but we ran into issues when integrating it into the robot’s hull. The cables from the sensors ran by the cables for the thrusters, which resulted in noise in the acoustic signal. This year we plan on adding amplification to the acoustic system and rerouting the cable in order to improve the system. We also plan on pool testing at least once a month in order to improve system reliability and implement new missions!