1. Building Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) in Introductory Oceanography Classes
Debra Woodall, PhD

2. My Adventures with ROVs
Workshop sponsored by COSEE Pacific Partnership
Summer 2011 Community College Faculty Institute
Held at OIMB
Presented by MATE

3. Why ROVs? Students learn to collaborate
Prepares them for upper-level oceanography courses
AND LIFE!!

4. Why ROVs? Experience scientific challenges Concepts dealing with
Buoyancy
Ballast
Payload

5. Why ROVs? It engages students of all majors!
Hands-on experience involving a real marine science activity
Stimulates thought and imagination
What it really takes to explore our oceans
Introduces new career options

6. ROVs 101—building your course
Brief overview
How I teach my classes
Preparing students for their pool experience
Student lessons in ROVs
What you will need and helpful suggestions to ease your job
Life after ROVs 101
resources
—what could be next??

7. How I teach my classes…
3-4 sections of Intro to Oceanography per semester
On the road to 2 satellite campuses
Pool challenges
DSC Aquatic Center
YMCA for others

8. How I teach my classes… Pool challenges Always use the shallow end!
If students fall in—tell them to stand up
YMCA for others
Most charge no fee
Available pool times may dictate your course schedule

9. How I teach my classes… Hybrid class (no lab) Review weekly material
limited to 35 students
1hr 20 minutes per class period!!
Review weekly material
Class Reviews important concepts
Answering student questions
Followed by a weekly exam of the material (WE)
ROV grade is a WE

10. How I teach my classes…
I encourage you to teach the ROV class after marine bio sections
Students understand what it means to capture a sessile epibenthic or nektobenthic organism
Also helps if students have already experienced working together (mini-labs)

11. How are they graded? Team effort Divide into your chosen team of 3
Build an ROV
Grade of C
Successfully deploy and maneuver your ROV in the pool
Grade of B
Successfully retrieve a ‘biological’ from the bottom
Grade of A
This is the student sign-in sheet. I check off their skills as they complete them

12. What you will need…and some helpful suggestions

13. What you will need…and some helpful suggestions
I use an extra large plastic tub to keep my supplies of PVC pipe—makes it easy to store and transport
½ inch pipe
Comes in lengths of 10 feet
Each about $1.80 at Home Depot (H.D.)
To start out—get about 1 length per team
After teaching this a few times I found I was left with lots of PVC pipe SO—I cut much of the pipe into 3 similar lengths
Length you choose doesn’t matter as long as e.g., all reds are the same length ( I think my blues are about 10 inches, green 7 and red about 5)
I continue to provide a small amount of white PVC so students can cut “specialty-length” pieces

14. What you will need…and some helpful suggestions
When selecting PVC pipe, I prefer the thicker wall—it has a sturdier cut

15. What you will need…and some helpful suggestions
This is my tub of connectors
Make sure they do NOT have inner threads!!! You want to smooth interior-walled connectors
Elbows: bag of 10 $1.97 at H.D.
Ts: bag of 10 $2.76 at H.D.
Crosses, 3-D corners: only at Lowes; sold individually about $1.50 each! (I think :-/ )

16. What you will need…and some helpful suggestions
You will also need a pair of pliers (below) so that you can pull out any stubborn pipe pieces
Gotta share!!
PVC pipe cutters (~4 pair)
Scissors to cut the pipe foam insulation (2 pair..I also recycle salvageable pieces of foam to be reused next class)
Duck tape—( 4-5 roles)
Hint: National brand 40 yards = $2.68; Scotch brand 30 yards = $4.49!!
Plastic container box (top) —payload
I offer my students plastic forks and chop sticks/skewers

17. What you will need…and some helpful suggestions
Biologicals
Nektobenthic (crabs)
PVC pipe cap painted red
Wood screws for eyes
Drill 8 holes
Twist pipe cleaners and thread through holes to make the legs (2 pipe cleaners help to make the legs more rigid)
Sessile epibenthic (filter feeders)
Elbow PVC to anchor
Thread pipe cleaners for length
I cut a wine cork in half, cover with cloth and secure with pipe cleaner.
Cork will allow the critter to float in the water column while the pvc connector secures it to the floor.
Be brave—create your own!!

18. What about the battery!!!

19. I use a 12-volt battery commonly used for commercial smoke detectors
Requires changing battery connectors that you will get with your ROV
Advantage: students are free to move to locations without my need to baby sit a large shared battery
They are heavy enough to remain stable around the pool
Have students move them back from the edge
Their weight will make transport challenging
Make sure during transport you don’t stack them on top of each other!!! Transport side-by-side. I use a reusable shopping bag.
Doesn’t matter which ‘slide tip’ they plug into whether + or – side
Wont shock if they get wet
It’s rechargeable
The battery!!!

20. Preparing students for their pool experience
Lessons in ROVs
I review the following PowerPoint slideshow during the week prior to their pool experience…
How much do you tell them as far as how to build/deploy?
Depends on time and desired degree of challenge (the less you tell them the greater time and challenge)
---AND---
How much fun YOU want to have watching that challenge!!
WARNING: most students don’t have a clue what they are getting into—don’t be concerned about their intimidation!!

21. ROVs What is an ROV? Remotely Operated Vehicle—an underwater robot
Remote: the pilot is not in the vehicle
Operated: the vehicle is controlled by a person
Vehicle: it is a self-contained, integrated system
ROVs

22. All shapes and sizes ROVs come in many shapes and all sizes
Small observation vehicles may only have a camera and be 30 to 40 cm long
Large work vehicles can be the size of a house or semi-truck and have complex tools
Lots of vehicles in between

23. Other types of underwater robots
Autonomous underwater Vehicles (no cables)
Seagliders
Buoys
Wave gliders
Drifters

24. ROVs are used in a variety of fields…
Scientific research
Underwater archaeology
Oil & gas drilling support
Reconnaissance
Homeland Security
CSI
Telecommunications
Spying???
BP spill

25. ROVs are designed with a mission in mind
On this slide I like to use the pics and point out the challenges that collaboration scientists and engineers must address when deciding how to accomplish the task…e.g., what is needed to sample soft tissue vs lava pillows?
Rescue a disabled ROV trapped inside Titanic
Cap an oil well
Install instruments for an ocean observatory
Collect organisms from under the polar ice cap
Catalog data from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent
Rescue trapped submariners
Catalog diversity of a national marine sanctuary
How to meet the challenges of deep-ocean exploration

26. ROVs—it’s not just a guy thing!!

27. Your mission: Design and build an ROV that can…
Maneuver in a pool
Descend to the bottom
Retrieve
‘Biologicals’
Have fun!

28. ROV Anatomy: Some Terminology
Structure (frame)—what keeps it all together
Flotation—what allows it to float
Ballast—what helps it to sink
Power—what supplies the energy for the vehicle
Propulsion—devices (motors & propellers) that transform electrical energy into motion
Control—directing the vehicle—switches, joysticks
Tools (payload)—manipulators, sampling devices (what you need to complete the task at hand)
Navigation and sensors —cameras, lights, sonar

29. Our ROV Construction Frame Propulsion system Buoyancy & Ballast
MATE - Marine Advanced Technology Education :: AngelFish Kit
Our ROV Construction
Frame
PVC pipe
Propulsion system
Bilge Pump Motors
Buoyancy & Ballast
Foam insulation and water
Control and Power system
12-volt battery and switch box
Note: the propeller with the ‘L’ must be used as the left motor on the ROV. Also, the link at the top is for you!!

30. ROV-in-a-bag Payload: chopsticks and forks… and anything you like!
I like to encourage my students to bring payload from home! The teams seen below used cake servers (left) and a beach toy (right)
Payload: chopsticks and forks… and anything you like!

31. Ten guidelines to designing your ROV
Water pressure is always there (you want it to fill with water!)
A structure keeps it all together
Bigger isn’t necessarily better (you want the motors to be powerful enough for lift)

32. Ten guidelines to designing your ROV
An ROV should float before it is ballasted (the ROV should float just below the surface—let them figure out how much foam)
The weight always ends up below the floats (Foam on top! If it is placed on the bottom, the ROV will likely float too high in the water and inhibit motors like the one in the pic to the right)

33. Ten guidelines to designing your ROV
Moving ballast weights tips the ROV
An ROV must be able to move
An ROV needs a controllable power source
It is important to navigate the ROV

34. Ten guidelines to designing your ROV
Motor placement is important
What’s wrong with this ROV?
If foam is placed on the top cross bars, the motors will be out of the water
If this ROV is turned upside down, the motors will be scraping the bottom. Also…where would one place the payload?
Another note—for best forward motion, propellers should be placed in same, straight forward direction (i.e., not facing each other)
For best up/down motion, one motor should be placed up/down direction

35. More on motor placement
What directions do you want to go?
Up/down
Forward/backwards
Left/right or turning
How can three motors achieve this goal?

36. THREE DON’TS I TELL MY STUDENTS!!!!
DO NOT TEST YOUR MOTORS WHILE THEY LAY ON THE GROUND!
IT EATS UP THE PROPELLORS

37. THREE DON’TS I TELL MY STUDENTS!!!!
DO NOT PULL YOUR ROV OUT OF THE WATER BY THE UNBILICAL CORD!
IT PULLS OUT THE WIRES (I instruct my students to tape the umbilical cord to the upper most portion of their ROV to keep it controllable. They are told that once the ROV surfaces, grab and remove it by the frame. Also—note the piece of tape on the pipe foam—this keeps it from popping off while underwater)

38. THREE DON’TS I TELL MY STUDENTS!!!!
DO NOT CUT THE COLORED PVC PIPE
YOU MAY CUT THE WHITE PVC PIPE

39. The party’s over… now what?
Students are required to dismantle their ROVs and return all supplies to the appropriate container. Tape is also removed and disposed. I recycle all that I can!

40. MATE created the ROV competitions as a way to:
MATE and LIFE AFTER ROVs101…
MATE created the ROV competitions as a way to:
Engage students in STEM and expose them to science and technology careers
Encourage students to develop and apply technical, teamwork, and problem solving skills
Provide funds, materials, and technical expertise to support student learning provide industry with skilled individuals who can fill workforce needs 

41. (I) SCOUT CLASS
(III) EXPLORER CLASS
Three levels of competition with increasing technical requirements. Fun for all!!
(II) RANGER CLASS

42. For more info on ROVs, MATE and MATE competitions…
LIFE AFTER ROVs101…
For more info on ROVs, MATE and MATE competitions…

43. Questions??? I’m happy to answer…
Phone: