We got to the pool at 2:30 PM due to delays in resolving issues with the DVL and thrusters. The thrusters issue was fixed after the offset was changed to zero. The DVL however was unreliable when tested on land – it worked sometimes, but not other times. Also, we could initially connect to the front mono camera but couldn’t later. We found that the thruster configuration is the same as before.
At the pool, we first checked if everything was waterproofed correctly. We didn’t find any leaks in any of the capsules. However, there were a few 3D prints that needed to be nail polished, which Vincent has noted.
We then adjusted the buoyancy of the robot and got it to be pretty close to level. We made sure the robot computed an accurate state. Lastly, we adjusted the buoyancy offset to make the robot neutrally buoyant when controls is enabled.
We used the fiber tether throughout the test, and found that it got tangled easily and was painful to work with.
After taking the robot out of the pool, we observed a small amount of condensation at the top of the capsule. When we took the capsule off we didn’t find any water in the stack, nor was there any particular source of a leak.
We noticed that the o-ring looked quite worn down, which may have let a small amount of water in. We decided to replace the o-ring.
Positives
- Robot largely works after the stack was rebuilt.
- Buoyancy and offset tuned.
Issues
- Although we didn’t have any issues with it at the pool, the DVL connection may still be unreliable.
- Cannot connect to front mono camera.
- Fiber tether gets tangled easily; will switch back to ethernet tether for future pool tests.