1 We went to an International remote operated vehicle (ROV) competition at the aquatic center in Federal Way, about 1.5 hours from us. The program looked awesome and the prospect of meeting students from other countries was more than we could resist. So off we went at 7:30am after just getting home from camping the day before, and playing football Fri evening! I was TIRED! But I am so glad we went.
2 Egyptian team setting up.
3 Less complex projects in the swim area (Ranger program), more complex in the dive tank (Explorer program).
4 The teams set up a company, give it a name, have a CEO, a CFO and 4 department heads in charge of engineering, technology, communications and one other function. They create a 50 page project report, a poster display and do an engineering presentation. All three of these are judged and awared points. They also complete 2 missions and are awarded points for successful completion of tasks. Finally, they have a safety check for which they receive points. The high scorer wins!
5 Here are samples of the Moscow team's setup.
6 Engineering report.
7 Setting up the robot.
8 People in orange shirts work for MATE - Marine Advanced Technology Education. Each year has a different theme. This year it was ocean observing systems - collecting data on oceans from nodes on the sea floor.
9 This is the Jesuit Robotics team setting up. We got to talk to the guys for a while before their turn.
10 They each had a role to play and they knew it well. This is the B team, the A team got to do Mission 1, so the B team is doing Mission 2. This way everyone gets to play a part in the program.
11 Putting the robot in the water.
12 The man way across the pool in the orange shirt, the shorter man, is Marty Klein who was commissioned by Jacques Cousteau to do the sonar system development. See this: http://web.mit.edu/museum/exhibitions/kleinsidescansonar/
13 A community college team. Going to visit the teams after the competition is a really good idea - they are less stressed, and quite willing to pull the robot apart and let you touch it to learn about the systems. It was really cool. These guys were nice and did theirs on a shoestring - like $2500.
14 The Saudi Arabian team - talked to them for a while. Nice people.
15 The guys were pretty beat from days of travel and competition but were really nice. They are university students and plan to go into research. They enjoyed their travel here. They also enjoyed watching Sam solve his 5x5 cube.
16 Nice guy giving it a go!
17 The NASA-funded team from Arizona State Univ (whose robot had some unfortunate psychological troubles - it was hearing commands that were not being given to it by the driver - some kind of interference). Poor guys - I tried to cheer them up a bit - they certainly had a good story to tell about the weird issue their bot had! They are holding a panda given to them by the Chinese team, in orange.
18 The two teams together.
19 Each team had a different way to "grab" things. I appreciated seeing each different approach.
20 Ah - a good use for the grabber!
21 All having fun after the event.
22
23 IEEE had a big presence here providing information on careers and scholarships.
24 This Oceaneering pilot training device was really interesting. You could learn about how the pilots of real ROVs are trained to operate the ROV. Oceaneering has 73 ROVs in the Gulf of Mexico right now on oil rigs running all kids of operations - plugging things in, taking things out, setting switches, grabbing cables, etc.
25 I gave it a go, too.
26 One of the ROV pilots giving it a try. The job is a good one for those not interested in high school and willing to live on a rig for 21 days at a time. After about 5-6 years of work, they can move up into a supervisory position and earn 6 figures.
27 The Venezuelan team - we heard their poor robot got picked apart for parts on its way here, so they had to do immediate repairs. Poor guys. Another team said that security at their airport (I think Egypt) thought it was a bomb so all the wires were snipped. Logistics is a huge issue for the international teams. I think I'd be looking at shipping it some way other than a plane!
28 He says he has video of his ROV on YouTube, so we will have to look it up.