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.