This morning, Nova had its first autonomous run at TRANSDEC. This first test was very successful. The vehicle passed through the validation gate, rammed the buoy, followed a pipeline, went under the barbed wire, grabbed the briefcase, and surfaced in the recovery zone. Continual updates will be posted here for the duration of the competition.

Nova being lifted into the water

Nova over the practice bins

Nova surfacing after autonomous hydrophone run

Nova being removed from TRANSDEC after a successful practice

The sub arrived this morning at 9:30 and construction started immediately after hauling it back to the room. As of noon, the sub is almost entirely completed, computer communications are up and running, and all the components have been leak tested. We got access to the dock beside the hotel, so we hope to be putting it into the water in a few hours. Photos coming soon.

After flights that were remarkably free of delays, cancellations, confusions, and all the other mix-ups that plagued CUAUV's trip out to San Diego last year, the team arrived in San Diego to the news that the rental car payment had never been processed and that the FedEx guy had refused to pick up the boxes containing, among other things, Nova. Thanks to Dorothy in ECE, the confusion was resolved and the crates shipped and should arrive tomorrow. The team spent the afternoon enjoying the beautiful San Diego weather before plunging into the AUVSI competition.

The team spent all day Saturday and Sunday packing to get ready for traveling to San Diego on Monday.

 

On July 17, 2009, Nova successfully completed mission elements in Teagle Pool. The following video shows Nova passing under the barbed wire, fire torpedos through the target, dropping markers into bins, and surfacing with the briefcase.

For the first time in several years, the hydrophones are working reliably before the competition! During the July 15 pool test, Nova was able to complete eight out of eight hydrophones missions completely autonomously.

Nova also fully autonomously ran the following run:
Barbed wire -> machine gun nest -> bins, drop on correct targets -> follow hydrophones to recovery zone -> pick up briefcase, -> surface in the recovery zone with briefcase.
The team is very excited about these results, and will be spending the next week running autonomous missions in Teagle pool to pinpoint and fix any software bugs.

Pictures and videos coming soon.

As a part of the floating classroom project, CUAUV's vehicle Nova was deployed in Cayuga lake on Sunday, July 12 to survey mid-summer Macrophyte growth. Despite windy and wavy conditions and poor visibility, Nova was able to run a 10m x 10m search pattern and come back with some good picture of bottom growth.

For more pictures, visit the Floating Classroom July 12 Gallery. For pictures and data taken during the survey, see our July 12 Survey Images Gallery. For videos from our downward and forward cameras showing images collected during our search pattern, visit our Underwater Videos Page .

More underwater pictures of Nova have been posted. Visit Underwater Pictures of Nova.

More Nova pictures have been added to the website. Visit the Nova Image Gallery to see the newest additions.

During the pool test on Thursday, June 18, Nova completed all vision elements of the mission autonomously in Teagle Pool. Videos from the vehicle's forward and downward facing cameras can be found on the Underwater Videos page.