I went to Robosub again this year! I had a great time chatting with all the teams and it was nice to run into a lot of people from the old USU-still-goes-to-Robosub glory days.
Lots of good looking subs and there was big upset this year since both Cornell and University of Florida were having problems. Other things to note:
- 3D printing propeller blades is a big thing U of F was looking into. I was actually looking into it a bit on my own already so got some good tips.
- Submarines can separate after they dive, so long as all parts stay underwater, and do different tasks simultaneously. Cornell was looking into this but their mini-sub didn’t attend this year.
- Maybe this was already really common but I only just noticed many teams using epoxy to do sealed cable joins. Just like a huge cylinder of it with the cables going in on the sides. Seems to work pretty well.
- There’s a new less-expensive hardware supplier called Blue Robotics0 They have pretty decent thrusters for $100 and a lot of teams were using them. They’re looking into doing pressure vessels, and other things as well!?