NAVSEA Robosub Competition (2015-2016)

The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) sponsors an annual competition for autonomous robotic submarines (Robosubs). The competition is hosted in San Diego, CA, and challenges engineering skills across multiple disciplines. The competition team brings together engineers from across the Palouse, but this page highlights the efforts of the University of Idaho Capstone Design team.

Problem Definition
The main goal for the year is to design and produce a working, autonomous submarine capable of completing specified goals and tasks while meeting club/competition requirements.

Background
Launched in 1997 and co-sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Robosub aimed to advance development of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) by challenging new generations of engineers to perform realistic missions in an underwater environment. The competition is open to high school and college teams from around the world and is held each year at the U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific's TRANSDEC Anechoic pool in San Diego, CA.

Design Objectives
The Autonomous Submarine must be able to complete numerous tasks designated by the competition.

These tasks include:  Going through a starting gate Navigating from task site to task site on a course using visual and audio cues Dropping markers at specified locations Accurately deploying torpedoes at targets Locate pinger and surface in appropriate area (typically an octagon)  How well each task is completed goes towards the overall team score for the competition. Other scoring can be attributed to subjective scoring.

These tasks include:  Team Website Technical merit (Journal)</li> Written Style (Journal)</li> Tech accomplishments</li> Craftsmanship</li> Team Uniform</li> Team Video</li> Discretionary Static Points</li> </ul>

Project Learning
Organized by Team



Mechanical Engineering
 Sub Stand The submarine stand will make for better presentation and easier repairs/modifications. The stand is intended to both hold the sub and allow the user to rotate it along a central axis running parallel to the electrical components bay. This should be fairly easy to accomplish since it is fairly similar to an engine stand. This project will be completed by first examining current device that perform similarly to this one. If a device is readily available that can be modified, this option will be explored first. If not, the device will be engineered similarly, but customized for our particular needs. </li>  Camera Waterproofing The cameras selected by the other teams will be mounted to the sub and waterproofed by the mechanical engineering team. They will need to be mounted such that they will perform as required for the competition, but do not interfere with other devices. Depending on the cameras selected, the mechanical engineering team will first search for predesigned and waterproof certified cases. If no such cases are available, the mechanical engineering team will design cases that will be capable of being placed underwater to the max depth of the arena. Mounting will be designed accordingly to work with the case </li>  Additional Battery Tube Make an additional waterproof carrying tube for the sub’s battery which allows for hot swapping during testing. This saves the team critical time that would otherwise be wasted with the monotonous activity replacing the battery inside its waterproof casing, rather than just swapping out the case. </li>  Bottom Claw Systems Design and manufacture bottom claws for the sub that will operate using pneumatics. We want to put multiple less robust claws on the bottom so that we have the opportunity to grab more than one object at a time. </li>  Pin Removal System Design and manufacture a pin removal System (PRS) for the sub that will operate using pneumatics. Mounted to the front of the sub the PRS will be used for removing a magnetic pin from a wall and reattach it in an alternate place. </li>  Marker Dropper The current marker dropper system on the submarine is integrated into the forward claws. This year we would like to separate the two systems so neither relies upon the other. We want all of our systems to work independently of one another. This should allow us to build specific designs which alternatively may help increase the accuracy and speed of each. Markers must be expendable. </li>  New Pneumatic Housing Currently we only have one system running off of air. We are planning on switching both of the claws, forward and bottom, to pneumatics. To do this we will need a new pneumatic housing to hold all of the required components. Not only does the size of the tube need to change, but also location. </li>  Electronics Bracket The current 3d printed brackets allows for too much of the electronic piece to be open to the environment. This causes a problem for other electronics due to the majority of the piece being exposed while electricity is running through it. A new design is needed to fully house the piece while only allowing the pins on the top to be exposed. </li>  Buoyancy Confirm the new volume of the submarine to determine 0.5% of total mass and buoyancy. This is important because the competition rules states that “All vehicles must be buoyant by at least one half of one percent (0.5%) of their mass when they have been shut off through the kill switch.” </li>

Team Information
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto; width: 80%" !Picture !Bio !Dicipline
 * style="text-align:center"|jacewestcott.jpeg
 * style="padding:5px"|Jace Westcott: Jace is a senior at the University of Idaho and working towards his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. In his spare time he enjoys being outside and spending time with friends/family. Hobbies include snowboarding, an soccer. He's a nice guy, but don't let that fool you he's definitely ladies man.
 * style="padding:5px"|ME
 * style="text-align:center"|DylanChristianson.jpg
 * style="padding:5px"|Dylan Christianson: A mechanical engineering student with a minor in physics at the University of Idaho, Dylan has been a protege from a young age. A Hawaiian/Norweigan, native born Alaskan he has spent many summers working on a fishing boat, but plays soccer and water polo on his off time. He is currently employed by the US Navy, in the Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate Program, collecting large sums of money for doing nothing but going to school. CODENAME: Brown Bear
 * style="padding:5px"|ME
 * style="text-align:left"|MikeClark.jpg
 * style="padding:5px"|Mike Clark: He is a Senior Engineering student at University of Idaho working on a Bachelors of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering along with minors in Mathematics and Physics. He is the team leader as well as one of the head designers on the team. In his spare time, he enjoys playing water polo, volleyball and playing the saxophone and guitar. He is an avid skier and enjoys fishing and mountain-biking.
 * style="padding:5px"|ME
 * style="text-align:center"|KirkDelmas.jpeg
 * style="padding:5px"|Kirk Delmas:Kirk is a senior Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Idaho. Currently is in the Navy ROTC program at the University of Idaho, and will attend Dive and Salvage School in Florida upon graduation. He is the brawn behind the operation. His hobbies include water polo, rock climbing, fishing, snowboarding, and working out.
 * style="padding:5px"|ME
 * style="text-align:center"|KirkDelmas.jpeg
 * style="padding:5px"|Kirk Delmas:Kirk is a senior Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Idaho. Currently is in the Navy ROTC program at the University of Idaho, and will attend Dive and Salvage School in Florida upon graduation. He is the brawn behind the operation. His hobbies include water polo, rock climbing, fishing, snowboarding, and working out.
 * style="padding:5px"|ME
 * style="padding:5px"|ME