About This Project

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Our students, male and female, are predominantly High School and early-College age and studying various types of STEM-related studies in their pre-Collegiate term. Through past #SciFund Challenge events, our students have advanced their study of high-performance computing (Supercomputers),tested underwater solar energy generation, and created 3D Printed materials for personalized education using open source hardware and software elements, sharing the results of their works and designs for others to use in their own local programs.

We have been constructing Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs) for underwater exploration using the SeaPerch design shared by MIT's students, but these systems are limited to the depth of swimming pools and cannot dive deep enough to perform the studies our students are planning for the Summer term. With your help, our students will construct an OpenROV kit capable of deeper submergence (~90 ft) and a greater range of actions underwater.

Like all past rounds of the #SciFund Challenge, we will continue to share our experiences and any new equipment designs we create openly using the Thing-I-Verse and Instructables file sharing sites, social media like our Twitter feed (@STEMulateOrg) and through Blog posts for educators and parents on our http://STEMulate.org blog.

What is the significance of this project?

Pre-College exploration of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects by young learners builds interest in later University STEM degrees and areas of employment like robotics. We have been building a collection of technologies our students can use to explore the world and discover their own personal areas of interest, sharing the results of our workshops with educators and interested students. We use inexpensive open source solutions for our lessons to ensure portability beyond the public schools we are working with in the US, EU, AU and Asia-Pacific and South African regions.

Our existing SeaPerch ROVs are allowing students to develop an understanding of submerged robotics using off-the-shelf hardware and electronics, basic electronic circuits for control and navigation, and simple construction techniques. We are limited in exploration or student research due to the Sea Perch design's physical structure, which compresses and causes them to fall uncontrollably beyond 18 feet depth. The OpenROV design allows controlled descent to almost 90 feet - well within visible range of freshwater and littoral (near-shore) salt water regions along the Texas Gulf Coast.

What are the goals of the project?

If we meet our basic goal and obtain an OpenROV kit, our students will be able to study more complex robotic control systems by exploring submerged areas of Texas shoreline reefs and inland waterways. We have permission for extended studies of spring-fed waterways with submerged dinosaur tracks along the Sabinal River in Central Texas this coming summer thanks to private supporters.

If we reach our initial goal, our stretch goal will be for an underwater video camera to record our student's explorations and share them via our YouTube channel. Our current ROV designs provide a live feed to the robot operator but cannot capture video for later review.