Three Hollister boys learned that sometimes it takes a lot of
trial
– especially in science – to get things just right. Forming a
team they called
”
Delta Farce,
”
three Rancho San Justo Middle School seventh-graders for more
than two months had been preparing for the 10th annual Underwater
Robotics Contest.
Three Hollister boys learned that sometimes it takes a lot of trial – especially in science – to get things just right.
Forming a team they called “Delta Farce,” three Rancho San Justo Middle School seventh-graders for more than two months had been preparing for the 10th annual Underwater Robotics Contest.
Held Saturday at Monterey Peninsula College’s pool, the competition challenges students ranging from middle school to college levels in the science of controlling a self-designed robot immersed in water. It is intended to replicate a set of real-life missions. In this year’s contest, the mock setting was an underwater volcano in Hawaii from which students were tasked with deploying a simulated monitoring station and collecting a series of fake organisms within a 10-minute limit.
For Peter Jelinek, Marcus Ventimiglia and Jason Matsui, their design for the remote operating vehicle – shaped like a cube and constructed largely with PVC pipe, wire and three motors – came together just in time for the competition. On Friday, they had been finishing up the final touches in one of the boy’s back yards, which includes a pool. Matsui wrapped up work on the last of the wire sottering before the three students placed their ROV into the water for some test runs.
One of the hardest parts of the process came Friday when the boys worked to figure out the right level of buoyancy for the ROV. It’s crucial because it has to float somewhat while the apparatus also can’t just sink to the bottom, either. To get it right once the basic design is built, they attached emptied water bottles and foam pieces – which they sliced into small rings – to get the necessary floatation.
Just like during Saturday’s competition, they each had a role and acted it out. Matsui was the pilot who handled the remote control and drove the ROV. Ventimiglia was the teatherman who made sure it had the right level of buoyancy. And Jelinek was the spotter, who assisted the pilot in navigating underwater.
“If you look into the water, everything’s at a different angle,” Jelinek said. “It’s pretty much, make sure he’s doing everything right underwater. I also have to pull everything off the ROV as quick as possible.”
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