AUV assembly and battery install

With Hilary's assistance today we unpacked and assembled the AUV and began the battery install process.

Home sweet lab

Today with some help from Ron the AUV moved from my house to its home in the CSHEL lab. Tomorrow we will unpack all the equipment and install the batteries.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

In lieu of the Red Rider BB Gun...

Seems the jolly old St. Nick must have run out of the Red Rider BB Gun this year as instead what appeared under my tree from the hardworking elves in Iceland was our new Gavia AUV. Thankfully there were no warnings about the potential dangers to ones ocular organs ("you'll shoot your eye out") so seems we are safe there. In the second photo I decided to have some fun with the vignette and sepia tone settings to give it that old time Christmas look. I found myself instantly transported back to a time years ago waking up and finding a remote controlled robot on Christmas morning. Yes Mr. Wordsworth "The Child is the Father of the Man" (My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold). I wonder what things the future holds for the next generation. Happy Adventures!

A Boxing Day miracle of sorts

In a late holiday entry today a truck arrived at my house to deliver
our AUV from Iceland together with it's new acoustic modem module.
Rejoice and exultation abound...now if only I can fit it all under the
tree in my living room.

-Art

New mounting bracket for tracking pinger

There is now a proper bracket inside the tower fairing on the control
module for the Sonotronics pinger locator we use on the AUV. Now is
only we can get said pinger and AUV across the pond and here to us. ;^)
Note: Best practice is to remove the reed switch magnet and simply
toss it away noting the date for starting the pinger, they must be
replaced every 48 months according to the manufacturer

MIMO payload module arrives for AUV

Early Christmas here at CSHEL as our new acoustic payload module for
the AUV arrived yesterday and we had a chance to open it up and look
at the components.
The flooded section will house the acoustic transponders and the
pressure vessel is where our Data Acquisition Unit (DAQ) will go.
Note: be cautious not to try and lift the vehicle around the flooded
section!
Next to see how well the DAQ electronics fit inside the pressure vessel.
Thanks to Bill and Hilary for assistance in the lab.

CSHEL get's an AUV support boat

Today our new Zodiac just arrived as I discovered a big box down in
the lab. Felt like an early Christmas present. Adam played the role
of Santa's workshop elf and without me even asking he went ahead and
put the boat together discovering along the way that the pump hose had
a tear. He managed to fix it but we're gonna need a replacement part
since it is brand new. Next on the list is to find a small outboard
motor to attach to the transome. Should give us just the kind of
portable ready response we need in the off chance (fingers crossed)
that we have to go track down an errant sub.

What are AUVs all about...

Here is a short vignette excised from the College of Marine and Earth
Studies new video http://www.ums.udel.edu/podcast/watch?c=152
This deals with the AUV work in our lab and shows some footage of our
old AUV DOERRI.