Yesterday marked my first full day of AUV operation. My team consisted of Adam, Bryan, Hilary, Ahley, Akanksha, and myself. The plan for the day was to explore the far basin first and then proceed to perform AUV operations in the closer basin after lunch. This basin was fitted with a GPS buoy and two targets that were all to be mapped with the AUV.
The morning mission in the far basin started off a little rocky. The AUV failed to dive to its starting point due to organic matter and shallow depths. After a little fiddling with control center we decided to start the mission in the middle of the lake. This provided a much deeper basin for the initial dive. Once we deployed this strategy there were no hiccups with the mission. It is a beautiful thing to see the AUV dive under and not come up for a full hour- pretty amazing.
After a quick debriefing at lunch it was time to conduct the buoy missions in the near basin. The AUV ran perfectly until it hit a snag- literally. The propeller became entangled within some loose rope attached to the buoy. Hilary dove into the cold New Hampshire water within minutes to untangle the fish. Luckily nothing was unharmed and the mission continued as planned.
Tomorrow is the last day of bootcamp. It will consist of data analysis, packing, cleaning, and hopefully a US Soccer win, (I'll settle for a draw). This week has been a lot of fun despite the continual lack of sleep. I learned so much in such a short period of time that I'm sure it'll be a while before I can step back and truly appreciate how much useful information was crammed into my overloaded brain this week.
Thanks Art for a great opportunity- I leaned a ton and had a great time
-Intern Out-
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