January 12, 2008

Dear Susan Humphris,

Hello, I hope that your expedition is going well. I'm from Ms. Sheild's 7th grade class and I have a question considering the AUVs. How did you guys name the robots Puma and Jaguar? Also, how do you know how to repair them once they get damaged? Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

Sincerely,
Ranya Virk
Lexington, MA

Dear Ranya:

Naming vehicles is always fun! Hanu Singh, the engineer who led the effort to build the vehicles, and Rob Reves-Sohn, the geophysicist who collaborated with Hanu on the project, named them. Puma is the AUV that is the hydrothermal “Plume mapper” – hence the name, Puma. Since the two AUVs are siblings, they wanted to name the other vehicle after another “cat” – and they came up with Jaguar.

The engineers and graduate students from Hanu’s lab repair the vehicles if they get damaged. If you look at some of the slideshows over the past week, you will see photographs of people making repairs.

Thanks for following Dive and Discover!

Susan Humphris

My name is Nancy and I live in Lexington. I go to Clarke Middle School.
My questions are mostly to the engineers: How does the "brain" inside the Puma work? How does the Puma know where to go? Do you program it to locate a certain place and it then goes there?

Thank you,
Nancy

Hi Nancy:

Puma’s “brain” is really just like a laptop computer. Just as a laptop can run programs, so can Puma’s “brain.” Engineers can program the laptop so it carries out a series of commands – just like any program you use on a computer. So Puma is given a specific location to go to, and then it uses the sound beacons (or “transponders”) on the seafloor to determine where it is, and which way it needs to go.

For more information, go to the Navigation section of the Dive and Discover website: http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/tools/navigation.html

Thanks for writing!

Susan Humphris

Hi:
I am one of Ms. Sheild's, seventh grade students in Lexington, MA. I have two questions for you:
1. Does the captain always have to be at the steering wheel of the boat?
2. Since it is very noisy on the boat, is it ever hard to sleep?

Arden

Dear Arden:

Thanks for the questions. The captain does not always have to be “driving” the ship. Although he is in overall command and can be called on at any time, there are three Mates who stand watch on the bridge with an Able-bodied Seaman so that there are two people up there at all times of the day and night. They are responsible for actually “driving” the ship and making sure the captain’s orders are followed.

The ship is very noisy, especially if you have a cabin on a lower deck near the engines, so when you first arrive, it is sometimes difficult to sleep. Some people use earplugs. However, once the research begins, most people are up for many hours a day. They are so tired by the time they go to bed that the noise doesn’t bother them.

Keep following the cruise for the next week.

Susan Humphris

Dear Robotics Crew,

Hi! My name is Sanghoon and I am from Ms. Sheild's 7th grade class in Lexington, MA. What kind of light bulbs do you put on the AUVs to take pictures of the dark seafloor? Also, what is the sight range when you use those light bulbs?

Have a great time at sea!

Dear Sanghoon:

Those are excellent questions! I checked with Chris Murphy, one of the graduate students who works with the AUVs. He told me that the strobe lights are the same as you might buy at a store for use on land.

On Jaguar, the strobe is at the back end of the lower hull, while the camera is at the front end looking down, so they are about 2 meters apart. The strobe is aimed to illuminate the patch of seafloor that the camera will take a photo of when the AUV is about 3 meters off the bottom.

I hope this answers your question.

Susan Humphris

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