Monday, July 26, 2010

Day 11 - A Day at the Beach

What can be better than a research trip that combines sun, ocean breeze, waves, and kayaking at the beach? Today Jesse, a rising MIT senior, took Cole and me on a deployment of the ROV Rex II at Nahant Beach. One of Jesse's friends from mechanical engineering came along to help as well. The purpose of the trip was to take videos of eel grass off the coast.

We loaded Rex II, a laptop, wires, and other supplies onto a pickup truck and drove for about half an hour to Nahant. The weather was perfect with a refreshing breeze as we set up a tent on a private stretch of rocky beach. The waves rolled in and out, covering and uncovering a variety of beautiful rocks and purple shells along the coastline. I could spend hours just picking up rocks and shells to admire or keep as souvenirs.

With all the connections set up and the computer terminals opened, Rex II was ready to enter the water. We helped Jesse carry Rex to the water and push him in. I controlled the computer commands for Rex under the tent. I also had the opportunity to drive Rex with a video game remote controller. However, the robot was not very responsive to my directions on the remote controller. It turned out that we had lost connection. Jesse intially tied a flag to the antennae, but we guessed that the flag weighed down the antennae too much, causing us to lose signal. Jesse jumped into the water, swam out to Rex, and cut off the flag.

Much to our dismay, we still had no connection. In the end, Jesse and his friend took a kayak out to the robot to examine what might have gone wrong with the connection. When efforts to fix it from the surface were fruitless, Jesse had to dive to rescue Rex - without proper diving gear, in the water that was surprisingly cold for July. The two of them struggled to pull Rex back to shore, the friend in the kayak, Jesse in the water with the robot. It took them an hour before they finally reached shore, and by that time, Jesse had hypothermia. He could not stop shivering, and it took him about 45 minutes to warm up while we waited anxiously.

After Jesse recovered, he troubleshooted the ROV and discovered that one of the major cable joints, due to wear and tear, was no longer water-tight, causing us to lose connection. Dismayed, we loaded Rex back into the pickup truck to take back to Sea Grant for repair.

Before leaving the beach, I was able to climb up to a low rocky cliff for a better view of the ocean. Privately owned sailboats bobbed up and down not far from shore, and beyond them, one could see the Boston skyline in the distance. I scanned the sand for unique rocks and observed snails and hermit crabs in tiny tidal pools surrounded by rockweed. I found out that if you accidentally squish or burst open rockweed, a jelly-like goo will ooze out.

Not all deployments turn out the way they are supposed to. I hope today's trip, despite it's rough patches, will pave the way for many more research trips in the future that will hopefully be just as fun, regardless of the success.

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