AquaPack Robotics at RoboSub 2023

At the end of July 2023 AquaPack Robotics represented NC State at the Robosub 2023 at NIWC TRANSDEC in San Diego California. Across 8 days the team worked on SW8, ran 5 days of competition testing, and completed 2 semi final runs. With the year of dedication and countless hours spent preparing for the competition, the AquaPack team is proud to announce we have placed 14th overall at RoboSub 2023.

The competition is broken up into several categories: design documentation, team video, website, design presentation, and best competition run. Taking the feedback the team received from judges at RoboSub 2022 the team prepared our Technical Design Report (TDR) and scored very well getting 146.1 points to achieve 6th place in this category. The technical presentation and team website scored 142.56 and 150.8 to achieve 24th place in these categories.The team’s fantastic introduction video, filmed with the help of NC State’s ECE department and Isabella Mormando, scored 101.27 points and achieved 10th place.

Competition runs are split across 4 total phases. Each team is given the opportunity to qualify, 2 semi final runs, a third chance run, and a finals run. Qualification requires the demonstration of autonomy in which the robot must successfully navigate through a “gate” completely autonomously. Semi-finals give teams the opportunity to complete various competition tasks, such a firing torpedoes, dropping markers, and tapping buoys. Each task scores a certain number of points. The best performing teams in terms of points are then allowed to compete in finals runs. Third chance allows any team that qualified for semi-finals to perform additional competition runs on finals day, with the aim of scoring enough points to qualify for a finals run.

AquaPack completed runs in two semi-finals slots and attempted a third chance run. The team’s best scoring was for 1326 points during the second semi-final run. Post semi finals the team was in 13th for competition runs. After finals the team was bumped down to 14th place by Amador Valley High School, who scored highly in the third chance run after making necessary repairs to their robot both semi final days. AquaPack gladly supplied our teams’ spare Blue Robotics ESCs to Amador Valley High, which allowed them to complete that points scoring run in the third chance and finish 5th overall.

The highest points scoring autonomous run of 1326 points completed on the second semi final day. Before the run began a total weight of SeaWolf VIII was taken, measuring 34.6 kg which scored 15 additional points for a weight bonus. The run consisted of SeaWolf VIII starting the run by passing through the gate while maintaining a fixed heading scoring 100 points plus an additional 150 points for fixed heading. The robot then made two complete 360 degree rotations in yaw to score 800 points for completing gate with style. The robot then completed a single tap of the buoy for the start dialing tap for 300 points. The final task attempted in the run was a dead reckoning towards and surface in the octagon for the Engaging Chevrons task. SeaWolf VIII ended up surfacing about 40 feet before the octagon and the team decided to lock in the successful run before the clock ran out.

AquaPack is excited and hard at work prepping SeaWolf VIII for its next appearance at RoboSub 2024.

During the fall semester, the Mechanical team focused on designing our next fully autonomous robot, SeaWolf IX. The plan is to begin using SeaWolf IX for competition in 2025. Instead of using SolidWorks like previous years, the Mechanical team switched to Onshape for CAD modeling. The goal is to make SeaWolf IX AquaPack’s best scoring robot to date with capabilities of completing all RoboSub competition tasks.

Software team transferred the code used at RoboSub 2023 from Java to Rust. At the last pool test of the fall semester, SeaWolf VIII was capable of moving through the gate fully using Rust. Last year’s leadership as well as this year’s leadership believes that this transition to Rust will significantly improve SeaWolf VIII’s performance in the RoboSub 2024 competition.

Electrical team refined the electrical system for SeaWolf VIII to be competition ready before focusing on the design and creation of SeaWolf IX’s electrical board. With collaboration from the mechanical sub-team, the electrical sub-team has decided to use a single hull for all of SeaWolf IX’s electrical components unlike SeaWolf VIII, which has two separate battery hulls from the hull containing the electrical board.