Progress

All Divisions

August 2022: A New Heading

This summer marked a huge turning point for the Underwater Robotics Team. Through our discussions with the USS Missouri, we were able to get in contact with her sister, the USS Iowa, and bring our ROV on board the battleship! Thanks to them both, we have started a conversation with the Historic Naval Ships Association (HNSA), and we are currently working on overhauling our SS&T Missouri for AC power to do hull inspections for museum ships like the Read more…

By Nathan Hart, 9 months9 months ago

Electrical

January 2023 Electrical

Despite an unexpected change in leadership this semester, the electrical division is still going strong! Since we are progressing with the SS&T Missouri instead of the Texas for this year’s competition, we’ve decided on using a 15V system, which should allow us to mitigate power blackout issues while still allowing us the capabilities to finish all of the competition tasks. In order to reach a working system we have already selected components for the systems Read more…

By Nathan Hart, 4 months ago

Computing

January 2023 Computing

Our computing division is now working on three major projects for this year’s competition: manipulator control, photogrammetry, and float communications. The first group’s goal is to overhaul our programs for controlling ROV manipulators to make them as precise and easy to use as possible, which will be very important for all the tasks that require fine control, such as injecting a syringe through a cover. The second group aims to combine stereographic vision with 3D Read more…

By Nathan Hart, 4 months ago

Mechanical

January 2023 Mechanical

The mechanical division has completed the design for the SS&T Texas, which will hopefully be used for competition in the summer of 2024. We have also designed a new dynamic arm for the linear actuator manipulator, as well as a new method for quickly changing manipulator arms. We will have prototyping for both of these completed soon, and we should be able to move on to finalization and manufacturing in the near future. Additional projects Read more…

By Nathan Hart, 4 months4 months ago

All Divisions

January 2023: Preparation for Competition

Over the past few months, our team has been working hard to get our new ROV, the SS&T Texas, ready for competition. Through the struggles and the guide MATE has finally sent out, though, we have discovered along the way that SS&T Missouri would be a better fit for this year’s tasks. And so, as the USS Missouri was decommissioned in 1955 and recommissioned in 1986, our ROV will be following in her footsteps yet again, being recommissioned for Read more…

By Nathan Hart, 4 months4 months ago

All Divisions

October 2022: Breaking New Ground

All of our divisions are working hard as we approach the release of the official task guide. The task preview has been posted, though, so we have a better idea of what direction the competition will be going in this year. The computing division is looking into new applications of our software, the electrical division is preparing schematics to fit everything into a smaller enclosure, and the mechanical division is working on both the drive Read more…

By Nathan Hart, 7 months7 months ago

Electrical

October 2022 Electrical

Since we are moving to a smaller enclosure for our next ROV, one that’s about 4 inches tall, the electrical division is working on a custom power board in order to fit the new size constraints. We are currently in the design process, using quarter brick regulators like the ones in our old ROV, Titan, to save space while still giving the same power as in the SS&T Missouri. As of now we’re still designing Read more…

By Nathan Hart, 7 months7 months ago

Computing

October 2022 Computing

As the day that the competition rules are posted draws near, the computing division is currently focused on training and practicing through example projects. In particular, we have members practicing with the object recognition, navigation and autonomous movement capabilities of ArduSub (the ROV control software we use) via OpenCV, QGroundControl and Pymavlink respectively. We also have two exciting division-wide projects that we are looking into. The first involves simulating GPS coordinates with ArduSub, which is Read more…

By Nathan Hart, 7 months7 months ago

Mechanical

October 2022 Mechanical

The mechanical division has finished selecting all the components for the AC and DC drive stations, and orders for almost all of them have been placed. As soon as the components come in, we will be finalizing the plans and assembling them. We’ve also placed orders for the material to make the SS&T Iowa’s frame, and will be beginning water jet machining of those parts as soon as the materials come in. Right now, mechanical Read more…

By Nathan Hart, 7 months7 months ago

All Divisions

July 2022: Competition and the USS Iowa

The Missouri S&T Underwater Robotics Team has finished competing in our first ever MATE ROV competition from June 21-26! We placed 14th out of 20 teams in our class, not a bad run for the first time out! While we were there, we also took the chance to visit the USS Missouri’s sister ship, the USS Iowa. They were kind enough to let us display our “Mini Mo” on board and give us a tour of the Read more…

By Nathan Hart, 10 months ago

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