DOUG
The Deep Ocean Underwater Glider Prototype is an underwater vehicle designed for underwater exploration and research. The unexplored depths of the world’s oceans provide significant room for scientific discovery. Existing underwater vehicles do not have the capabilities to effectively and sustainably conduct research over long periods of time. Our vehicle, affectionately nicknamed DOUG, was born to meet key design specifications missing from existing underwater exploration vehicles. In particular, we’ve been charged with the task of combining long-range capabilities, a fast top speed, and precision control of depth with high endurance into one underwater research vessel. DOUG was designed to withstand depths of up to 1000 meters below sea level, with autonomous capabilities ranging up to 30 days.
A video of the glide paths for the DOUG
A chart I made in MATLAB detailing the flight angles of the DOUG over time via inputs taken from LoggerPro
Detail of the Project as a whole
This project totaled 28 students in total with four advisors. For organization, the 28 students were split up into five different teams. My team was hydrodynamics and propulsion, or hydro for short. I was the leader of this sub-team. Tasks we fulfilled were fabrication of prototype parts pivotal to the function of the craft. This included fairings, fins, and propeller as well as providing the team with numbers of drag and thrust for the DOUG. I worked mostly on these general numbers as well as the folding propellers. The class and my role as a leader taught me the important of persistence with both project and team. The design ran into many errors with the formlabs printers and my team got a bit behind in the beginning due to various supply chain difficulties. With constant communication and an understanding of the performance our parts needed, we were able to work around these issues.
