Vernon Runs Away

When the vehicle was dissembled to debug the connection issues yesterday one of the sonar molex connectors was broken. This meant despite going out again in the afternoon and running the mission scheduled for the morning, no sonar data was gathered. Today we planned to rerun that mission so we could collect the sonar data.

At the end of the rerun mission Vernon surface as normal and proceeded to drive to the parking point. We located him and began to drive towards him, but on the way their Vernon turned into our boat. Jason, the boat driver attempted to turn out of the way but could not see Vernon and ended up turning in the same direction as Vernon. Chris and I were standing at the bow of the boat and felt Vernon collide head on. A couple moments later it surfaced at the other side of the boat. Chris jumped in to inspect it and found nothing wrong. Its sensors seemed to be working and there was battery left to run two more lines so we loaded them up and pressed go.

At this point the deployment and monitoring of the AUV had lost its novelty and while driving over to the next surface point most of the ship's crew seemed rather tired and board of being stuck on the boat. During the first three lines everyone participated in sever games of hangman, but at this point no one was interested in playing anymore games. We arrived at the surface point a couple minutes ahead of when Vernon should have been there and began looking around for him. Usually he takes about 36 minutes to complete a leg so by the time 40 minutes had gone by we had gotten worried and when 48 minutes had gone by we decided something most have gone wrong.

Looking over the mission we had loaded I realized the safety settings said to abort the mission if it the depth to surface was more than 45.72 meters. Wentao looked over the depth charts and discover the first leg should have broke this depth limit in the first several meters. When a mission is aborted the Iver would normally surface and execute a safety return path, but no safety return path was included in this mission so we assumed it was probably just drifting in the current. Everyone was suddenly awakened from what had become a boring day and sent to the edge of the ship to look for Vernon as we back tacked our way along the surface of the last line. We were all looking for Vernon's yellow hull or white strobe light. The strobe was hard to spot because it was in the middle of the day so the most of the ocean's surface was constantly sparkling with sunlight. On the way back there were many false sightings of debris and ocean flashes, but no Vernon. Next we did a search assuming it surfaced soon after it had dives and had been carried by the current. Finding nothing, we returned to its final park point in case we had just missed it. Again it wasn't there, but as we left on another search a sail boat pulled along side and asked if we were looking for something.

It turns out the bump we had gave Vernon at the end of the previous mission, despite not physically damaging him, must have cut deep into his trust with us. At the beginning of the last mission his dive was merely a ruse. After ten minutes he surfaced looking for refuge and found a passing sail boat. After an hour or so he realized it was all a mistake and decided to come back.

Vernon's Temporary Refuge

Once we had Vernon safety back on our boat we looked over the log files and, as expected, a couple of minutes into the dive the depth limit was exceeded and he surfaced to be recovered by the passing sail boat.

(The Iver3 AUV is named Vernon.)

Teaching Kids!

Today, Wentao went out on the boat to deploy the iver, while the rest of us went to San Andres Elementary school to give three sixth grade classes a lesson in robotics. We gave each class a 15 minute presentation on robotics, and then we had the kids get in groups of 3-4 to work with one of us on programming the Scribbler robots. They were all very energetic and excited to be working with robots!

Meanwhile, Wentao and the rest of the crew on the boat were having a harder time with connecting to the iver. Connecting to the AUV via remote desktop was not working. Eventually it did connect, but they were only able to get 3 lines of sonar data, and our initial goal was to get 5 today. This process took much longer than expected, and we are hoping to not have any connection issues when we go out on the boat tomorrow.

The Robot Leaves The Nest

Today was our first boat deployment in open waters, and the mission was a success!

After a relaxing morning, we walked down to a nearby dock in the afternoon to meet up with Timmy, Chris, Karly, and Sam and travel out to sea. We stopped the boat near the starting waypoint of the mission, lowered the AUV into the water, and watched it dive down into the blue depths of the sea.

The AUV and Valletta in the distance

Hanging out on the boat

The mission consisted of four long dives, so we followed the AUV by approximating when it would resurface at turn points. Though it was nerve-wracking waiting for Vernon to reappear, nothing was more exciting than seeing it again after a 3000m dive. 

Diving down

Once the mission was complete, we returned to our apartment and processed the side-scan sonar data using SonarWiz. It was truly amazing to see how clear the images turned out. We plan on making a few changes and continuing our seafloor mapping tomorrow. 

Today was a great day not only because the whole team (including the AUV) survived three hours at sea, but also because this was the culmination of many days of debugging and testing. To top it all off, the team ended the day with delicious crepes and pizza.

Ruining our Trip

Today was quite the adventure as we took our first field trip. We ventured to the south side of the island of Malta this morning and went on an 11k hike along the Dingli Cliffs to Hagar Qim.

Wentao on top of the world

CP team having the most fun

The Hagar Qim ruins were spectacular! Chris got in for free for being an educator, which was really nice. However, you could say Sam ruin-ed the trip (for no particular reason, just for being Sam). It's amazing that anything could last that long, and even more amazing that we could get Jeff to sorority squat.

Sorority Squatting

Jane confusing the panorama

After traveling back to Sliema, we went for a swim in the bay and then cleaned up to meet Timmy for dinner. We had a great time learning more about the sonar software and making plans for our first boat deployment tomorrow. Exciting!! We then went for another swim and gelato, a perfect combination if you ask me. We finished the day with some team bonding, and Jeff looked very dapper for the event.

Jeff looking good in his bow-tie

Rollercoaster of ICEX Deployments

I felt today was just like many other days of ICEX. We plan some goals for a deployment, then when we deploy several and things go wrong. Yet later we find that the deployment was not so bad.

Today we returned to Elmo Bay in Valletta to test the sonar again. We had hoped to resolve the problems we had encountered yesterday: black sonar images with no data and no low frequency data. During the deployment we ran several missions. Every time we run a mission we can only look at a couple of the many sonar files because it takes a while to copy and process the sonar data. While we were at the deployment all the sonar images we looked at had the same black problem and the low frequency still seemed like it showed no data. At 12:30 we had not accomplished the sonar testing goals we had set for today and were hungry so we carried the robot to a cafe in Valletta for lunch.

Carrying the Iver to a cafe in Valletta

After a great lunch at Eddies Cafe Chris wanted us to gather some of the examples of problems we were having with the sonar data so he could send an email to Edge Tech asking for help. When gathering these images we looked all of the sonar images of the last run because we had time to wait for them to transfer and process. It turns out we had just chosen poor images to look at before and several of the images showed promising data. Furthermore, the low frequency scans did seem to have data it was just too dim to in the sun at the deployment. Timmy looked over these images and thought they were not so bad as we originally thought.

With the good news of the deployment we explored some of Valletta and got to see a ceremonial cannon firing.

Deployment at Valletta

Today we set off for Valletta to explore the HMS Maori shipwreck in St. Elmo's Bay. We were accompanied by Timmy and his team for a while and were able to send the AUV out on a few missions. The view was amazing and we had a good time.

AUV on the side of St. Elmo's Bay.

Backdrop of the team's working area.

Unfortunately we had a bit of a hiccup when one of the AUV's sensors stopped working. After some time spent debugging out by the water we decided to pack up and figure out what was going on back at the apartment. We have a few ideas on the issues but will be continuing the debug session tomorrow.

Jeff, Chris, and Jane taking apart and debugging the AUV.

Besides that, we all got some time to sit back and program a bit. We're looking forward to fixing the AUV and trying the mission again tomorrow!

Manoel Island and new friends

Wow, it was a long day. Jane and I both had a nice long morning after pre-alarm wake-ups (thank you, jet-lag!!) On the bright side, we both got in some exercise and got to enjoy the morning by the water. Running along the coast truly is an amazing experience.

After breakfast we walked to the University and met the Malta team - Timmy, Carly, Sam, and Chris. We got to work with Carly, Sam, and Chris when we went to Manoel Island to deploy the robot. With our enlarged team, we were able to capture the first sonar scan of the shipwreck off of the island.

The view of Valletta from Manoel Island

I had a great time swimming after the robot with Roslyn, Chris, and Carly, and it was fun to show the robot to the new team.

A picture of Roslyn and I with the robot in front of a blurry Valletta

After getting back to the apartment, we got a lecture about water in Malta from Keith, which was both informative and exciting because he invited us on a tour of old underground water systems.

Now we are all working on our research and looking forward to going to Valletta tomorrow morning for another deployment!

Day 2: Blackout and AUV Debugging

An unfortunate incident happened last night when I plugged in a power strip that was not built for 220V. The entire apartment went dark with the sound of a blown fuse.

In the morning, because there was no power, Jane, Jeff and Sam went to Chris' apartment to debug the problematic compass on the AUV, while Amy, Roslyn and I got to go swimming at Balluta Bay ^_^.

The power was finally restored at noon. Jane and Sam continued to fix AUV at Chris' apartment and the others worked on their own research. Here is a picture of the busy AUV debugging.

Where's the bug?

Jane, Sam and Chris fixed the compass, so the AUV will be ready for a test mission tomorrow. Good job!

We went to walk alone the coast after dinner. Here are some photos of the beautiful night view.

We made it to Malta! Day one and we have just been getting settled into our three bedroom apartment for 6 people. We are just a couple of blocks away from the ocean. After arriving we bought a few essentials and some food for the apartment, then we headed out to get falafel for dinner and eat it on the beach. There are lots of great swimming holes, sail boats, and cats everywhere. We are all a bit tired after the 15 hours of travel but excited to explore the area more and get started tomorrow with working with the AUV.

Amy on the balcony of our apartment.

The team having dinner on the beach. 

The view of the bay.

#fbf to Catalina: Better Late Than Never

After the craze of finals, I finally got around to looking at the GoPro videos we took from Catalina. Here are some highlights (not shown: many shots of the team attaching the GoPro to the AUV). Enjoy!

In other news, Jeff, Wentao, and I have been busy coding and slowly packing for Malta. Chris and the AUV have already safely arrived there, and I'm so excited to join him and the Cal Poly team in a week.

Feels like Summer in Catalina

Our trip to Catalina was such a summer tease! The sun was shining, bathing suits were on, and the AUV was in the water. The team had some valuable practice team with deploying the AUV, planning missions, and making sure our metallic friend didn't crash into anything. We even gave the AUV a name - Vernon.  I absolutely loved spending time snorkeling and chasing Vernon around with my team, and I am so excited to travel to Malta!

Quick Trip to Catalina

The team took a short and sweet trip to Catalina to practice deploying the AUV. We all had a fun time figuring out how to plan AUV missions and were able to launch quite a few test missions to get a feel for how the AUV works. I think we all learned some valuable information that will help us while we're in Malta. The Cal Poly team also took advantage of the water to cool off and help make sure the AUV didn't crash into anything.

Visit to Catalina

Yesterday, we made a trip out to the beautiful island of Catalina. This was a great day of practice with the AUV before we go to Malta in a month. We were able to create missions for the robot and deploy it off the dock on Catalina. This was a good area to explore because there is a shipwreck that we could collect sonar data of. I can't wait to get a look at what all the data shows. We also were able to get some go pro footage of the robot and underwater images. Amy, Sam, and I spent much time in the water snorkeling, enjoying the fishes, and making sure the AUV didn't crash into any boats or the dock.