MATES Students Score Biggest Bang For The Buck With Underwater Robot

A robotic vehicle made mostly from household items earned Robotics Club students from the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science (MATES) in Manahawkin eleventh place out of 26 teams in their division during the annual International Remote Operated Vehicle Competition at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, Texas earlier this month.

The Ocean County Vocational Technical School MATES team was made up of three sophomores and two juniors: William Cusick, Louis Discenza, Kevin Quigley and Matt Moeller, all of Forked River, and Brian Intile of Toms River.

The competition required participants to design and assemble a remote operated vehicle (ROV), which could successfully and efficiently complete a series of mechanical maneuvers underwater. While helpers attended to the cables attached to the ROV, the handlers, or drivers, were positioned away from the pool, relying on cameras mounted on the ROV’s to guide them through the assigned tasks.

This year’s competition simulated an oil spill.

“The MATES ROV, dubbed ‘Aquapod,” has an aluminum claw powered by pneumatic cylinders, controlled at the surface with pressure regulating valves,” said MATES Mathematics Instructor and ROV Team Advisor Karen Quigley of Lacey Township. “The claw can extend or retract, rotate and open or close, designed to perform several tasks, as per competition guidelines. Ironically, the Aquapod’s primary buoyancy system, aluminum water bottles, garnered a great deal of attention at the competition.”

Louis Discenza, a 16-year old Junior who was new to the team this year, said they worked with the materials they had on hand, such as the water bottles and shoelaces.

“In total, the club spent about $1,500, we received between four and five-thousand dollars in donations and some items were donated,” he said. “We competed against university teams, some with $20,000 budgets.”

For their efforts, the team earned the “Biggest Bang for the Buck” award by spending the least amount of money on an ROV that performed well.

The team competed for the first time in the Explorer class this year, the highest level of the competition, facing teams from some of the top universities in the country.

Aside from being at a disadvantage competing against older students, Discenza said their ROV encountered some problems when it entered NASA’s training pool, which was 40-feet deep.

“Our robot lost its rear-facing cameras when placed in the water, which prevented us from finishing several missions,” said Discenza. “Since the pool was 40-feet deep, by the time it got down there, we couldn’t do anything for the robot.”

He said their water bottles were crushed from the water pressure and the pressure also got to one of the pistons that caused the mouth of the robot to get stuck in the open position. The ROV is still being shipped back from Houston and parts will be used for next year’s competition entry.

The team started out with 15 students at the beginning of the school year, but 10 seniors dropped out when in December they found out the timing of graduation would prevent them from attending the competition, leaving five underclassmen with little robotic knowledge, said 17 year-old Junior Kevin Quigley.

“I only knew how to connect wires, so I learned a lot this year,” said Quigley, who was on last year’s team that went to the international competition in Hawaii. “I was very impressed we placed so high in the first year competing at the university level, with very little experience.”

Next school year, Quigley said he plans to mentor younger students interested in robotics but will likely not compete again. He intends to study engineering when he graduates next year.

Teams from nine countries, including Russia, Scotland, India, Canada and Egypt, and 26 states participated in the competition sponsored by the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center in Monterey, California. For more information, visit http://marinetech.org.

For more information about OCVTS MATES, click here.