What a journey

First, let's meet the Philippines team.

They have travelled to the Philippines.

Chris and Abhinav left at 11:15am on Saturday. Adrian left at 11:30am on Saturday.

Chris and Abhinav arrived in Manila on Sunday evening, but the boats did not arrive. Adrian was travelling.

On Monday they called their airline, it seems that the boats were left in Chicago. Adrian was travelling.

The boats boarded a plane in Chicago bound for Manila. Adrian was travelling

On Monday evening the boats reached Manila and Chris and Abhinav picked them up from the airport. Adrian was travelling.

On Tuesday morning Adrian arrived in Manila. 29 hours after Chris and Abhinav.

These are the boxes that the boats were packed in:

Notice the TSA tape covering the box.

"Your bag was among those selected for physical inspection".

Constructing the hull of an airboat

Constructing the hull of an airboat 

Many hours goes into constructing each of the hulls for the airboats. There are numerous steps involved that are necessary to produce the high quality finished product.

VIDEO: timelapse of the construction of an airboat.

..and we're off!

Today the team set off for the Philippines where they will be testing the boats.

Planning for this trip has taken over 3 months and the entire CRW team is very excited to finally see it underway.

5 boats brand new boats were constructed to take. Packing was done over a few days and was finished literally minutes before departure.

Some photos of the boats and the packing:

The five brand new boats.

Each boat is composed of (from bottom to top): Shroud, hull, e-box, camera mount, camera box, Android Nexus s.

All screwed together!

We packed the shrouds, e-boxes and tools in Pelican Cases. 

All of the boxes were nervously checked in at the airport.

Stay tuned for more updates from us whilst we are on the ground in the Philippines.

A lake on an island on a lake on an island.

Today's post is centered on lakes and islands that are centered on lakes and islands.


Some facts:

• The world's largest island is Greenland*.
• The world's largest lake is the Caspian Sea.
• The world's largest lake on an island is Nettilling Lake, Canada.
• The world's largest island on a lake is Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, Canada.
• and.. The world's largest lake on an island on a lake on an island is Lake Taal, Philippines. (it's an active volcano!)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Taal_volcano_crater.jpg

And we are going to go there.

And we are going to deploy the boats.

On an active volcano.

And it is going to be grand.

Stay posted...

We leave for the Philippines in 5 days. Keep up-to-date on this blog!

Facts from: http://www.elbruz.org/islands/Islands%20and%20Lakes.htm

*Greenland is the world's largest island that is not a continent.

The results of the Moon Pond Test

Whilst in Maryland we attached (using the most advanced scientific methods) a 5TE sensor to the boats. This sensor was able to collect data on electrical conductivity & temperature.

Back in the lab this data was feed into the computer which then spewed out some fantastic results.

The video below shows spacial graphs of electrical conductivity and temperature. As you can see, these readings varied quite significantly across the lake.

Some other views of the pond 


View 1

View 2: Arial view

View 3

Preliminary preparation for the Philippines

The CMU airboats will be deployed in flood waters where they will collect important information. The onboard camera can feed back images that will show the operator where dangers exist in the water and possibly even where survivors are.

There is a saying in Robotics: “Whenever you go to test in a new field everything breaks”.

Therefore, no matter how many times we can get the boats to work in a lake / pool in the US we can never be sure that they will work in a flood zone until we actually test them there. That is why three of us at CMU will be heading over to the Philippines at the beginning of September to see if the boats cope with a new environment. The Philippines gets great monsoonal rain every year so, chances are, we will be caught in some sort of flood whilst we are there.

World wind maps strike again


As I have previously discussed in this blog, we are using Worldwind Maps to navigate the boats. These maps, like all maps, are not without faults and have once again delivered some fantastic results. Here is our test site in the Philippines shown on Google Maps:

Victoria, Philippines shown on Google Maps

Above: Victoria, Philippines shown on Google Map

And here is the same location shown with Worldwind maps:

Above: Victoria, Philippines shown on World Wind Maps

As you can see it must have been pretty cloudy the day Mr World Wind took his photos. Hopefully we can remedy this problem before we leave.


Keep up-to-date with the Philippines on this blog. We promise a few posts whilst we are there.

Testing in Maryland, a statistical summary.

Days 2 & 3 of testing in Maryland continued without many hitches.

In fact, Day 3 went so well that three of our brightest opted to stay on for an additional day of testing... aptly named Day 4.

Below is a statistical summary of the four days of testing...

Throughout the testing:

• We were at the pond for 41 hours.
• The boats were in the water for 22 hours 14 minutes. They were deployed 77 times. 
• The average deployment time was around 17 minutes. 
• 18 feet of Subway, 2kg of Chinese and 3 large pizzas were consumed. 
• The boats travelled approx. 26.23km.* 
• Max temperature reached 108°F!

*this figure has been estimated because we can’t be bothered working it out..

Graphical data

• Graph 1 - Number of deployments 

Boat 1 was used most (after the rescue raft of course)

• Graph 2 - Average deployment time 

Average deployment time increased over the weekend as bugs were found and efficiency was increased.

• Graph 3 - Data collection 

JoyRideMode made this possible. This graph has been added for humour and serves no other purpose.

Day 4 ended with a hurried pack-up as the Maryland’s fiercest rains rolled in. Unable to operate in the rain, we packed up and called it a day. (Yes, we are aware of the irony of having to pack up for rain when the boats are destined for monsoons in Manila. No, we don’t need you to point it out again.)