Tag Archive for: course-nocourse

The team is working very hard to prepare for the trip, we are bringing 3 of our OpenROVs, and two our UAVs including Paul’s aerial mapping UAV. Our ROVs have all been through the ringer in the last few months and as we always have funding, we have been amassing the parts, piece by piece. In addition to needing the parts, our parent laboratory, the PIRatE lab, has been exhibiting research at events, performing ecological surveys at the Refugio Oil Spill incident, all while moving into many brand new laboratories. This is great news because we finally will have a dedicated space to work on our Remotely Piloted Systems (RPS) endeavors. Currently our robots live next to sand, oil and animal samples, marine experiment tanks, and much more! The final batch of parts arrived last week, along with some upgrade parts that we’ve been waiting for.

In the next 5 days, the team must accomplish the following:

• Repair the three main ROVs: The Black PERL, Leviathan and R.U.M.
• Finish 3D modeling and printing new parts for the ROVs and UAVs
• Create new tether management systems for the main ROVs
• Create a neutrally buoyant tether with enough tension to recover the ROV
• Build and set up the aerial mapping UAV
• Field test all units before leaving

So far the damaged parts consist of:

• Two Beagle Bones
• Two tethers
• Wiring harness and end caps

R.U.M. is fully operational and is in the process of being upgraded with Paul’s 3D printed accessory rail, and the new 2.0 IMU. The new rail can hold more than three GoPros or other equipment!

Leviathan is semi-operational and is awaiting tether replacement with the new neutrally buoyant tether. It has had the Blue Robotics motors replaced with the stock ones, and is awaiting the upgrade with the rail and IMU.

PERL is non-functional, the tether damage led to corrosion which reached into the electronics capsule. This unit will require a new wiring harness and end caps. This unit already had an older version of the accessory rail, so it will only receive the IMU upgrade.

The accessory rail is designed around a slotted rail, which bolts onto the payload bars of the ROV, then allows the payload to be positioned and bolted into place. This is especially important when trying to properly balance an ROV, and it opens the door for many options. The 3D file will be released in the near future on the OpenROV forums.

In collaboration with our OpenROV/OpenExplorer friends from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the United Kingdom, Cal State Channel Islands will be travelling together to the capital island of Rarotonga, and then to a more remote island, Aitutaki. This trip is a multi-faceted research, education and service trip. We will be brining a group of roughly 24 university faculty and students to provide support the native people of the Cook Islands with scientific investigation to the marine ecosystem health with the goal to establish long term ecosystem monitoring. We have many projects that are planned for this trip, and will be breaking into small teams. This blog will cover the Remotely Piloted Systems aspect.
We will use OpenROVs to survey the lagoons and coral reefs, with an added twist. Guy Trimby from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory has been developing a system to detect novel fluorescent proteins which we suspect are present in the corals. These proteins are important because they can be used for the detection of biochemical markers which have a huge implication in research and in medicine. Paul Spaur the leader of our Aerial and Aquatic Robot Research team has been working to set up an ROV that is capable of supporting the payload. In addition to that, Paul has been building a fixed wing UAV and will be doing aerial mapping of the coastlines and patch reefs. We will be also doing terrestrial mapping of total biomass, agriculture, and other aerial surveys.
Other teams will be doing more traditional vegetation, sandy beach, snorkel, and ecotoxicology surveys!

We will have greater coverage and pictures of our endeavors available on our blogs:
Remotely Piloted Systems aarr.piratelab.org
General Research and Travel Blog cooks.piratelab.org

This species of Kingfisher is endemic to Mangaia Island, the southern most Cook Island. Despite it’s relations, this species does not usually eat fish. Most of its diet consists of lizards and skinks. This species’ mating habits are also different than most, they often breed in pairs or trios and switch between polygyny, polyandry, and […]