We were able to get first place in the qualifiers on top of yesterday's first place in static judging!

The morning started with a practice run at 7:20am. Its goal, like most of our recent practice runs, was to test the full mission. The mission began on a 12 minute timer due to constraints on the run. We began by successfully completed all tasks up until the bins, at which point we timed out (due to the shorter run as well as getting the tether stuck on several elements) and went directly to the hydrophone task. Again, we encountered problems differentiating the practice side pinger from the competition side pinger which led to us surfacing without grabbing the recovery object due to time.

Our second run was very much so similar to the first. Again, we timed out at the bins and went to the hydrophones and then had problems differentiating the pingers. This time, the timeout was caused by the shorter run as well as mistaking a buoy for a wire as we traveled over it, which we were able to recover from. Between this run and the qualifier, time was spent on localization code which might help in differentiating the pingers in the future.

At 4:30pm, we began our qualifier. During the run, we were successfully able to complete the validation gate, the buoys, and the first wire, shoot two torpedoes through the small hole in the target, knock off one grape, find the correct pinger, and surface in the correct octagon. We were unable to knock off the second grape due to driving too far into the element in our attempt to swipe at it. During the hydrophone task, we attempted to grab the recovery object but there was not enough time left in the run which was made worse by confusion again between the competition side and the practice side pingers. We were extremely happy with this run, and it proved enough to score us first place in the qualifiers!

During our final practice run, we went straight past the first wire and began the mission there due to time constraints. We completed the bins, but skipped the targets due to human error in identifying which side faced where. We were successfully able to knock both grapes off of the emperor task and successfully completed the hydrophone task. We lowered down onto the recovery object as well, but due to a loose air connector we were unable to grab the object.

We are extremely happy with how the day turned out, and look forward to see our the other finalists tomorrow in TRANSDEC! Come see our run at 4:00pm tomorrow!

"Home away from home!" - Killick



Team members Jeff and Mike downloading data from the sub after our qualifying run.



Killick attempting the torpedo target task during our qualifying run.



Killick attempting the emperor task during out qualifying run.



Team members Alvin, Melissa, and David carrying the vehicle to a practice run.