OOMG lab manager Jennifer Warrillow spoke to engineering students at Sanderson High School in Raleigh, NC in November 2018 about the application of engineering principles to oceanography. She explained the design and mechanics of OOMG’s Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), a Slocum G1 glider. Principles discussed include:
- how to make the vehicle watertight
- how to balance components inside the glider and component design features that allow the user to adjust them
- how a vehicle with no propulsion can move in a programmed direction using buoyancy, pitch control, and a rudder
- why the glider, a tube of metal, doesn’t sink straight to the bottom
- how the glider communicates with its shore-based pilot while at sea
- what an altimeter does for an underwater vehicle
- how the glider uses its burn weight to surface when all else fails
Students had the opportunity to handle parts of a Slocum glider, although the glider itself was awaiting deployment at the University of North Carolina’s Coastal Studies Institute.
Thanks to Sanderson High School teachers Hollis Watkins and Michael Hood for the opportunity to speak to their classes.
