VT AUVT

Since our last update we have once again entered the long, chaotic period we like to call the academic semester.  At the beginning of the semester we had a successful recruiting drive, and expanded the team to 17 members!  With almost three times as many people working hard on the AUV, we are making good progress toward achieving our semester goals.  A large part of our work is training the freshmen, and we have nine of them learning more about the vehicle every day.  They are a significant portion of the the team and will ensure AUVT’s stability into the future.

Many of our projects are gearing up into production mode, including the acoustics and wiring projects, as well as the testing team.  We had our first in-water test of the semester two weeks ago, and it was a good opportunity to let the freshmen see exactly what Barreleye can do.  We have another test day after tomorrow, so we are working hard on getting everything together on time.  We had a slight scare at the last test when the end-cap got pushed out of the hull about an inch because of the new camera, and the wireless buoy finally started leaking.  We’ve decided to do everything right this time around and not use any of the last-minute hacks that happened right before the competition.

Another part of our strategy is more cooperation with the other teams in the Ware Lab.  We share the lab with almost a dozen other teams, and we have the opportunity to share skills and techniques with most of them.  We are unique, however, as being the only autonomous vehicle team left in the lab, and one of only two submarine teams, the other being the Human Powered Submarine team.  We are also continuing our relationship with The Mathworks, and have also gained several sponsors since the beginning of the semester.

The progress we have made is directly in line with our priorities for this year, and at this rate we will have a very competitive entry!