Edgerton Center Student Teams

Marine Robotics Team

I have been a member of the MIT Marine Robotics Team (MRT) since the creation of the team in January 2011. I started as a UROP to a contest run with autonomous underwater robots that were designed to use different colors on the floor of the pool to swim inside a box and drop a ball, then return to the surface. The competition went ....alright. The UROPs organizing the competition ended up being the only participants, so we built the arena while designing the robots. It was my first exposure to any kind of software, including the magical arduino! I learned a ton, and have gone on to work extensively with the team on their current project: the Chevron Glider. We have received a grant to build an underwater glider that is capable of reaching several hundred meters in depth and detect dispersed oil throughout the water column. This vehicle is ideally going to be deployed in the Gulf of Mexico to help quantify the damage done by Deepwater Horizons.

Group photo in Fall '12 with the gliders

I am currently in charge of the Electrical system for the vehicle. The system is Arduino based for the microcontroller, and then has a variety of other sensors interfaced with it to control the vehicle. The current iteration of the system is a custom arduino mega shield that I designed and  then Adam G. created the printed circuit board in Eagle. We are hoping to have another working prototype done by May 2012. More information is at our wiki.

Tightening the hose clamp that holds the magnet in place. The Glider is activated by an external magnet triggering a hall effect sensor.

Launching the model for initial trimming

 

MIT Motorsports (FSAE)

This spring semester (2012) I also started to work on the Formula Racing team at MIT. I have been mainly focusing on doing various electronics projects on the current vehicle, and planning out the electronics that will be implemented on the vehicle next year. The current vehicle is a internal combustion engine, and is one of many in the long line of cars built by this team. However, next year's vehicle will be an entirely electric race car.