Digging in the Sun

We started off our day by traveling over to an archaeological dig site (tal-Villa Rumana fiz-Zejtun) to help with excavating some ruins. We were given a quick overview of the site by Dr. Maxine Anastasi and then took a quick break before getting to work. Since the site was covered up with dirt to protect it during the winter, our job was to help uncover the dirt and sediment. After working for a couple hours we were ready to go and eat. We said our goodbyes and took the bus back to our apartment.

The team at the dig site

Wentao and Amy at the informational poster

Listening to Dr. Maxine Anastasi about the archaeological site

Working hard

Hardly working

For lunch we went to Mint, a trendy casual restaurant. They had fantastic food and drinks. We also met up with Timmy briefly to chat. After lunch we went back to the apartment to work on our programming related tasks. Chris and his family also came over briefly to pick up their bags and say hi before leaving us forever :(

For dinner we went out for crepes. Delicious! Afterwards we went out to the beach to say bye to the water polo girls Amy has been practicing with.

A Fulfilling Feast

Today is the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, a public holiday in Malta, and a day full of events for us. In the morning, Jeff, Roslyn and I joined Timmy's diving crew. It was our first time to see a deep diving in action. We were surprised by the amount of equipment the divers put on before their dive. We could not imagine how much effort they must have put in to prepare and get familiar with these equipment. This makes us realize the time and energy that can be saved by using autonomous vehicles in underwater tasks.

John and Timmy getting ready to dive

The diving flag

Divers up!

In the afternoon, Amy, Jane, Sam and Zoe went on another boat deployment (and probably our last one). The fix for diving from yesterday proved to be successful and we got our best footage of the Bristol Beaufighter wreck so far!

Amy and Zoe with Vernon

In the evening, we had one of our best dinners in Malta at a Lebanese restaurant called Alibaba. On the way back, we had the fortune of catching a marching band for the Feast.

Bliss after the feast

Maltese marching band

Festive street

Final boat deployment?

I am reflecting on what a smooth well oiled machine the team has become in terms of deployments. Today, watching the team trade off positions carrying the AUV down to the water, preparing hte AUV, calibrating the compass (again just to be sure), then deploying successfully, I was impressed with how much has been mastered and achieved.

Teamwork to get the AUV to the quay

Teamwork to put on the goPros

Teamwork to calibrate

Teamwork to deploy the AUV

<relaxing for a moment>

Happy after deployment (including Tony, Timmy's PhD student working on maritime archeology)

Deployment crew today + Jason, our fantastic boat captain and overall assistant on many deployments

Finally a Fix for Vernon's Diving

Last night Jane and tried to debug Vernon's recent difficulty diving. Our discussion with Ocean Server led us to believe we needed to enable a safety setting that would force Vernon to dive even if the DVL did not have a bottom lock. This was not enough to convince me the DVL was not having problems, so I called the support line of its manufacture. After running several tests with one of manufacture's engineers, I was convinced the safety setting was our problem.

In addition to enabling the safety setting that Ocean Server recommended we enabled a another safety setting that sets a maximum depth if the DVL cannot obtain a bottom lock.  We enabled this to make it sure it was deep enough for the DVL to obtain a bottom lock.  After running some unsuccessful test missions we thought this safety setting might not be function properly because it seemed to prevent Vernon from diving below the depth even when the DVL had a bottom lock.

In our final test mission we disabled this setting and gave Vernon a longer dive length because Jane realized the 150 meters we were giving Vernon to dive was not enough. Unfortunately, Vernon still seemed to have trouble setting an appropriate depth goal even when the DVL had a bottom lock. For example, when Vernon was trying to reach 5 meters off the bottom and was deep enough to obtain a bottom lock he would still set a depth goal for 30 meters off the bottom.

Our next fix was to dive using two waypoints instead of one. The first waypoint would be a depth from surface that was deep enough to obtain a bottom lock. This way Vernon wouldn't need a bottom lock from his DVL to set a depth goal and could instead use his pressure sensor to reach the desired depth. The second way point would be the desired height from bottom. This would force Vernon to dive to depth that would allow the DVL to get a bottom lock. Then when Vernon switches to the height from bottom waypoint he will have the bottom lock required to set an appropriate depth goal.

Jane quickly modified her planner code to incorporate this fix so we could plan a new mission. Finally, during this mission Vernon managed to reach the correct depth.

Trying traditional Maltese Rabbit for dinner.

Sam's amazing ginger cookies

Roslyn attaching GoPros with zip-ties because we ran out of electrical tape. 

Back To Debugging

This afternoon Jeff, Wentao, Zoe, and I went out for another boat deployment to test our image detection to path planning pipeline. Unfortunately we continued to experience diving problems, and we believe we’ve narrowed the problem to the Iver being unable to track the bottom of the sea at deep depths (>80m).

Jeff, Sam, and Wentao calibrating the compass.

 

Zoe guiding the robot.

When we came back to shore, Amy and Sam helped us carry the robot back to the apartment, while Roslyn made everyone delicious dinner. Thanks again Roslyn!

Tonight is the Isle of MTV concert, so Amy, Roslyn, Sam, and Wentao went to experience the largest free concert in Europe! Photos to be posted… Jeff and I stayed behind to continue debugging. Props to Jeff for sending many emails and making phone calls to get more information about how to fix our problem.

Debugging is always the hardest part of robotics, but that’s also what makes it so rewarding when everything works. We will be up early tomorrow for another deployment, and we hope to get Vernon back up and mapping wrecks soon.

Iver Meets Diver

Today Jane, Amy, Zoe, and I went to Elmo's Bay to do another deployment. We were wanting to check that Vernon was still diving ok, as well at try to get good data of the shipwreck there. We did one pass over the shipwreck, 5m above the bottom. All went well, but the video data we collected was very murky, due to a lot of divers around the wreck kicking up sediment. We then ran a second mission going at 3m from the bottom. After the second dive Vernon didn't come back up for about 15 minutes, and we were concerned since each line was only supposed to take one minute. Zoe had gone and talked to some divers to see if they could spot the AUV and bring it up for us, but just as she did we saw Vernon emerge on the surface. Much thanks to the diver who helped release our robot after it got caught in the shipwreck! You can see on the GoPro footage above the AUV getting stuck and then being released by a diver.

Jane at the Deployment in Elmo's Bay

After coming back from deployment, I have been working on some more realistic graphical representations to go with our underwater meshes and make them actually look underwater. Today I finished making my first skydome, to make the beaufighter wreck look like it was underwater.

Skydome around the Beaufighter

Though we got stuck in the shipwreck on our second mission, we got a lot of great GoPro footage since we were so close. So I have also been working on collecting the frames from the video data, and seeing what 3D meshes I can get from them.

Our Day as Gozitans

Sunday, funday! Today, I had the pleasure of waking up early to go to water polo practice in Sliema. I have had the absolute best time playing with these ladies and appreciate the friendships I have been able to build through our common love of the game. It is amazing to me how after only a week in Malta (and help from Timmy), I was able to play the sport I love and have friendships that will hopefully last much longer than the short week we have left here.

The polo girls at practice at the Sliema Pitch.

The rest of the research team came by the pool to pick me up and we made our way to Gozo. Our first stop in Gozo was the Ġgantija temples. We were amazed at how tall they were and had a great time running around with such an amazing view of Gozo. The most interesting part of the temples was how art was used to keep a record of what they looked like before they were destroyed and their history over the last seven/eight centuries.

Sam, me, and Jeff at the temples.

The view of Gozo.

Once we finished being good archeologists, it was time for some well deserved rest and relaxation. Most of the beaches in Malta are either made of rock or covered in them, so we set out to find a sandy beach to better fit our Californian needs. The beach we went to was crowded and still a layer of rocks right when you got to the water line, but it was beautiful and just what we needed! Jane even found a good use for the rocks at the beach.

Just a girl and her rock.

Beach day!

After some very exhausting time at the beach (spent mostly floating in the sea and sleeping in the sand), we went for dinner in Xewkija where the Feast of St. John was happening. We had great food in a gorgeous place, which seems to be a common theme for this trip.

Finally, we all got some rest on the ferry and bus rides home to Sliema.

Super Saturday

This morning we walked over to the University of Malta to have a presentation on using Agisoft Photoscan. This is the software we use to create 3D models and textures of objects from images. The presentation was given by John Wood, one of Timmy's good friends and dive buddies. He gave us some tips on how to get pictures that would work best for Photoscan. We also learned more about diving and got to see some pictures of John, Timmy, and the rest of their team diving some underwater wrecks. Very cool!

Agisoft Photoscan presentation by John

Cooking up a storm for lunch

After the presentation we stopped at an Asian food store and got ingredients for lunch. Jane, Roslyn, and Wentao made some fantastic food! For the rest of the day we were free to do whatever we wanted. Roslyn and Amy went to the beach. Jane and Wentao stayed at the apartment to relax. Jeff and I went to the store to get some baking ingredients after working on our georeferencing script a bit. Apparently molasses is called black treacle here!

The team with John

Amy with some delicious ginger cookies (and Zoe being a goofball)

Today was a great chance to relax and enjoy some time together. Tomorrow we're planning on taking a trip to Gozo and then it'll be back to work for our last week!

Vernon Cleans Up the Sea

Today the team spent the morning working together in the apartment. In the afternoon, Roslyn, Wentao, Zoe, and I went out on another boat deployment, while Amy, Sam, and Jeff continued to work.

More laptops = more productivity.

The plan for the deployment was to test the full pipeline from Jeff and Wentao's image detection algorithm to my path planner. Though Jeff and Wentao are still working on converting the raw sonar scans to position-corrected geotiff files, they were able to give me the coordinates of a few sites of interest. With this information, I generated cross-shaped lawnmower patterns for two sites with my planner.

About half an hour into the first mission, we quickly realized that every deployment always brings a new surprise. Wentao noticed that Vernon had aborted its mission in the middle of visiting the first site, so we drove to where it was parked and checked for problems. Sure enough, there was a long piece of plastic that was tangled in Vernon's propellor. Today we learned that Vernon can not only map shipwrecks, but also clean up trash in the ocean!

The gnarly piece of plastic stuck in Vernon's propellor.

Following this mishap the motor appeared to still be functional, so we decided to continue by visiting the second site. However, GoPro footage and sonar data suggest that Vernon had trouble diving during this second mission, so we plan to revisit both sites next week after debugging the AUV.

Wentao action shot.

Roslyn guiding Vernon in the water.

Meanwhile, Amy, Sam, and Jeff spent the afternoon at the apartment, where they could finally work without me "being so loud." Amy and Sam extended work on camera position planning for photogrammetric reconstruction, while Jeff continued to work on the shipwreck detection algorithm and sonar file conversion.

In other updates, Roslyn has been working on displaying a JU 88 plane wreck reconstruction on her website, as well as adding a feature that displays wreck locations on Google Maps.

After the deployment, the team went to a Sliema vs. Sirens water polo game at the National Pool, where we reunited with Chris and Timmy.

A close game.

Finally, we ended the day with a wonderful dinner with Timmy at Surfside. 

More from June 22nd

This video clip describes our amazing collaborator, Timmy Gambin's, work, (which we are a small part of this excellent research initiative):

History Beneath the Blue

Here are a few more images from our productive day yesterday

The boat!

Sam putting the fin on and Jeff preparing the mision

Amy helping get Vernon in and out of the water

Happy about a productive afternoon

Working hard processing data

making serious faces (on purpose)

Unexpected Success

Today we planned to do an afternoon deployment testing a new strategy for scanning. Last night Wentao and I thought we had made good progress on the new scanning strategy so it could be easily finished this morning. However, Wentao, Jane, and I ended up working right up to the time we had to leave getting the missions ready for today. There were moments where we considered not going out today, but when the time to leave came around we had enough ready we figured it would be worth it.

Everyone helped carry the equipment done to the boat launch. Sam, Amy, Zoe and I went on the boat while Wentao, Jane, and Roslyn stayed back at the apartment to work on research. The first mission launched well, but as we neared the first surface point Amy spotted Vernon surfacing right under our boat. We were able to accelerate over Vernon before he surfaced so there was no collision, but it was a little scary. We had another small scare when fetching Vernon from the water where the water pushed Amy close to the boat's propeller. Other than that the missions went well, despite being rushed to prepare them.

Sam and I hugging after the successful missions