R/V Rob – In Greenland

R/V Rob’s Introduction to Greenland Upon our arrival I was relieved to find Rob securely tucked away in his crate in a container at the heliport in Uummannaq. With a few days of mooring preparation work ahead of us, there was not only time to set him up, but also to run a few preliminary […]

R/V Rob – The Autopilot

When R/V Rob arrived with its bare-bones option control system things were simple. A HiTec Aurora 9 radio controller talked to a HiTec Optima 9 which controlled, via RC PWM signals, a SSPS-105 rudder servo and two RoboTeq AX1500 motor controllers. That was it, all the ‘processing’ such as reversing one of the motors, since […]

R/V Rob – The A-frame

Why an A-frame? To facilitate deploying and recovering the CTD from R/V Rob some sort of crane or slide needed to be fitted to the vessel. It was debated, and finally viewed as a fall-back option, to leave the CTD in the water and tow it from location-to-location. However, the drag from towing an object […]

R/V Rob – The beginning

I am working as a Design Engineer on a project at Oregon State University to design, build, and operate a remotely-operated boat (R.O.B.) to be launched from a research vessel in Greenland.  This enterprise is one part of a larger observational study to understand the physical coastal processes that are impacting the Rink Isbrae and […]