Underwater robot team competed at international student competition

Alex Miller, Nicholas Orndorff, and Clara Orndorff

Recently, a local group of students qualified to compete in an international competition for underwater robots - the the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center’s International ROV Competition. A Remotely Operated Vehicle, or ROV, is a tethered robot used to complete tasks in underwater environments.

The team members are Alex Miller, Nicholas Orndorff, and Clara Orndorff. They live in north Seattle but ran their tests in Shoreline. 

"We live near Shoreline and James McCrackin of Shoreline Pool was gracious enough to let us test our ROV in their pool two or three times a week for about three months."

AMNO and CO was the second place winner in the Pacific Northwest Regional competition, which was held on May12th of this year. AMNO and CO accomplished this using an ROV they designed and built over the past year.

Their ROV was called "The Rust Bucket"
Here it navigates the Shoreline Pool

At the International ROV Competition, held June 21-23 in Orlando, Florida, AMNO and CO competed against over thirty of the top teams from MATE’s 21 regional competitions around the world, including teams from the US, the UK, China, Macao, Egypt, Canada, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

"In addition to building our ROV, we made a poster about our ROV, we wrote a technical report, and we prepared an engineering presentation to give to a panel of judges. 

"At the international competition in Orlando, Florida, we placed 19th out of 32 teams. We were the smallest team there and one of the youngest as well, so we were really happy with how we did. We've already begun planning for next year's project."

  

Each year, the MATE ROV competition encourages students to learn and apply science, technology, engineering, and math skills to the competition tasks that simulate real world problems from the ocean workplace. This year, the competition missions focused on the role that ROVs play in assessing World War II shipwrecks and the hazardous fuel oil that they may still contain.

Nicholas launches the Rust Bucket during the
international competition in Florida

During World War II, oil was one of the most important resources, allowing ships and soldiers to travel across the world’s oceans. Because of this, oil tankers were key targets. Many tankers now lie at the bottom of the world’s oceans. It has been almost seventy years for most of sunken ships and as a result, many have decayed. The oil that they may still contain could at any point in time be released to create an enormous environmental disaster. Of over 8,500 oil-bearing shipwrecks, more than 6,300 are from the World War II era. The wrecks of tankers can be found in the world’s oceans, seas, and even the world’s lakes.

Teams will participate in mission tasks, piloting their ROV to assess the condition of a simulated shipwreck and determine if oil is still on board. The teams will then attempt to remove this oil from the wreck to prevent environmental disasters. In addition, they must prepare a technical report describing their ROV, make a presentation to a panel of judges, and create a poster display.

This is the third year that AMNO and CO has participated in the Pacific Northwest Regional ROV Contest, and the first year they attended the MATE International ROV Competition. 

The AMNO and CO ROV team is supported by local sponsors including West Marine, Global Diving, and Harris Electric. The team practiced at the Shoreline Pool and fundraised over the summer near Alki Beach in Seattle. Their fundraising covered a large portion of the cost of their ROV.

For more information about the AMNO and CO ROV team, contact them. More information about the MATE ROV competition.