"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong".
Murphy's Law came into full effect today, in a big way. After a quick briefing session in the morning, it was supposed to be time to fire up the AUV and begin the missions on Swain's Lake. However a major kink was thrown into the works when the AUV malfunctioned. I was assigned to the Science shore team, heading up the data backup and computer work. So I worked on using a program called Sonarwiz to aggregate and Bottom Track the data from last week's "Sand Camp" that took place in Delaware. While bottom-tracking the map's picked up some pretty cool debris on the bottom- an anchor and a sunken ship. As I speak the AUV is still being worked on. The problem seems to be something regarding the networking capabilities of the AUV. The seemingly hundreds of wires inside were quite intimidating, so I tried to interfere as little as possible with the surgical esque process- You never want to have to many cooks in the kitchen.
Hopefully tomorrow I get to see this baby in action- So much anticipation
AUV Bootcamp Day 3
Today marked the first day of actual AUV testing. The morning hit a few speed bumps when the AUV failed to start properly. After some fiddling around it was booted up and ready to go around after lunch. During the morning hours I was responsible for more bottom-tracking of the data from June 1st at "Sand Camp". After which Adam gave me a crash course on how to find and mark specific features within the bottom tracking for later use. This method can be used to go back to the site and find specific points found in the sides-can data that peak interest. The morning was another brain-cramming session of computer knowledge that I would never have without AUV bootcamp. After A quick Panera lunch it was time to head out onto the boat to see the AUV in action for the first time. The mission was…messy to say the least. The plan was to travel perpendicular to the dock across the lake, turn and travel 30 m left and then head back. Sounds good in theory. The invasive milfoil that fills this lake proved to be the "foil", pardon the awful pun, in the plan for the day. It got caught in the propeller and proved too much for the AUV-mission aborted. They later staged a semi successful mission in deeper waters, but still the milfoil proved to be a major pain. Tomorrow is my groups turn to take the AUV out on missions that were planned tonight. Hopefully Murphy doesn't rear his ugly head again
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