Another morning brings another day at TRANSDEC! Today, our main goal for our practice runs was to continue testing vision and mission, debug problems, and get as far through a full mission run as possible. By the end of the day, a lot of progress was made at achieving this goal.

Our first practice run of the day started early in the morning at 7:00am. We started the run by successfully passing through the validation gate and ramming the buoys. Unfortunately, due to a human error the depth was set incorrectly which caused us to run into the wire. This also proved to be an issue with the bins as well, preventing successful completion of that task. After the bins, we made our way to the emperor task and spent a fair amount of time there debugging vision. We were unable to complete that task, but we were able to fix the problems that prevented completion such that we should be ready for the next time we attempt it.

The second run of the day saw more progress towards completing a full mission run. We successfully drove through the validation gate, rammed the buoys, and navigated the wire. As we attempted the bins, though, we had trouble finding them due to unexpected changes in the course overnight (the wire was moved about 3 meters from its location the previous day). The vehicle was brought back, and we attempted the course again. After completing the validation gate, buoys, and wire, we attempted the bins only to have an exception thrown due to a code oversight. This had a trivial fix and was quickly corrected for our next mission run.

The final run of the day saw successful completion of the validation gate, buoys, and the wire. After the wire, we discovered the pipe pointing to the bins was slightly off, and it directed us in the wrong direction. Fortunately, the code was robust enough such that it was able to realize the vehicle had traveled too far and find the true location of the bins. Unfortunately, at this point another exception was thrown. This time, it was a mysterious low level exception in mission. Thankfully, after debugging the error after the run, we determined it too had a trivial fix. After the exception at the bins, we successfully attempted the torpedo task, firing two torpedoes through the small holes on the target. Following the torpedo task, we attempted the hydrophone task. We were able to make it to the general vicinity of the octagon, but a bug in the mission code kept us from setting the gain properly and completing the task. At this point, we had to end our mission run. With some testing in the dolphin pool after the run, we were to fix the issue and prepare for tomorrow's tests.

With that, we come to an end of the third day. The team is resting, getting ready for a day of testing and static judging, and preparing to attempt a full mission run tomorrow!

TRANSDEC: Dawn of the Second Day. 48 Hours Remain (until qualifications).



Some of the team, up bright and early for another day at TRANSDEC.



Navy Diver Sean and Killick, getting ready for the second mission run.



Killick being pulled out after it's second mission run.



Killick just after it's second mission run.