MATE 2017
Laboriously Learning
The Aurelia was the name of our second vessel after the Aurelia Aurita, a clear jellyfish commonly known as a Moon Jelly. The name was chosen due to our decision to use clear acrylic sheets for the chassis. This year Subsea Research reached its peak number of members at 13 and I was given the opportunity to be the CEO, Fabricator, and pilot.
The frame was designed to be a completely modular structure that all the required tooling and cameras could be mounted to. We used a specialized acrylic glue for permanent connections, and Rivnuts to allow it to be easily disassembled.
The surface control system morphed into a Rasberry pi with a Steam controller (shown right) which worked surprisingly well after we shorted out the first two Rasberry pi computers.
An important lesson was learned about waterproofing this year, you don’t really need to waterproof electronics. We purchased several types of connectors (shown left)that were advertised as being IP68, all of them leaked but it only caused issues in one of two scenarios. First, if the connector was not opened to dry out, it would corrode and stop working, we lost several CAT-5 cables this way. Second, if the cable is routed into the waterproof housing, water can seep through the cable, into the tube, and get more sensitive electronics wet.
At the beginning of development for the Aurelia, we decided to purchase two more T-100 thrusters and gain more maneuverability. Before purchasing materials, we started with a wooden prototype (shown right) and then started to build the new chassis (below).
A fuse box was added (shown below) with a 5A fuse in series to each ESC, we then upped them to 10A because they were blowing prior to the ESCs being in any real danger. Also in the enclosure, a small camera (shown right) was installed along with an acrylic bubble endcap.
