ROV's In Action - Responding to the Gulf Oil Spill

While our 4-H kids are working on understanding robotics and underwater remote vehicles and how they are used in the environment, unfortunately a real life application is playing out in the Gulf of Mexico. Here are some real-life ROV's in action as they attempt to access and contain the damage to underwater pipes 5,000 feet below sea level.




Update: BP Provides Live Video from underwater pipe leak.

"ROV In A Box" A Big Hit at 4-H Chicken-que

The Two Rock 4-H Club Primary SET Robotics group participated in the annual 4-H Chicken-que in Santa Rosa, CA. The ROV-in-a-Box Project Kit, created by Nventivity, was a big hit as the 4-H kids were enthusiastic to explain how ROV's work and show off their own ROV projects. We were able to showcase all our recent activites, including the Hexbugs, Tamiya Mechanical Walkers, Scribbler Robot (that was misbehaving) and ROV's. The merits of 4-H were prevalent as the the kids did all the interaction with the public and were enthusiastic to share their knowledge of robotics.

Meeting #4

On our fourth meeting of the Two Rock 4-H Club SET Robotics project, we took our creativity underwater by building our first underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROV). Modeled after the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center (MATE) "ROV in a box", our mini ROV's were made of PVC tubing, small electrical motors and a control box.

The kids had a great time looking at the minimal instructions that were provided and building the ROV as shown in the photos. We learned about buoyancy and the importance of properly weighting an underwater craft so it can efficiently move. We also learned about propulsion, and the need to mount motors correctly so the craft moves in a predictable way.