E80 Project Kickoff Presentation

Agenda for Today

• Logistics & Schedule
• Project Resources
• Project Requirements
• Design Activity
• Project Deliverables

Soon this will be you!

E80 is about forming your engineering identity and learning how to do experiments

In this course you will learn how to…

Do Experiments

• Design instrumentation
• Gather, interpret, and present data
• Learn domain-specific skills (e.g., using op-amps and the wind tunnel)

Be an Engineer

• Deal with failure and learn from it.
• Professionally present your experiments.
• Know what good results look like.
• Work effectively on technical problems as a team under pressure.

Remaining Course Schedule Before Spring Break

Week	Activity
Monday 2/23	Week 1 of Lab 5/6 Rotation Project kickoff presentation today!
Monday 3/2	Week 2 of Lab 5/6 Rotation Writing section focused on rough draft of tech memo
Monday 3/9	Project proposal Tech memo due Resubmits
Monday 3/16	Spring Break

Deliverables for the Next Few Weeks

Deliverable	Due Date	Notes
Lab Writing Assignment Resubmits	5:00 pm on Friday, 3/6	Individual
Individual Lab Resubmits (2-4)	End of lab section in week of 3/9	Individual
Team Lab Resubmits (1, 5, 6)	End of lab section in week of 3/9	Team
Project Proposal	3:15 pm on Friday, 3/13	Team
Lab 6 Technical Memorandum	5:00 pm on Friday, 3/13	Individual

Activity: Think, Pair, Share Reflection

• What is the most important thing you’ve learned in E80 labs?
• What is the most important thing you’ve learned in E80 writing assignments?
• What technical skill do you most want to further explore in the project phase?
• What non-technical skill do you most want to further explore in the project phase?

https://tally.so/r/dWYY0N

Project Jump Start

Projects give you the space and freedom to design a robot of your own choosing, but there are a few elements that are common across almost all E80 robots:

1. Autonomous operation and navigation
2. Running and modifying the provided base software for the robot

To get you up to speed up on these common elements, we’ll have a more structured week of lab in the first week after Spring Break.

Project Timeline and Deliverables

Week	Activity	Deliverable
10	Project Jump Start	A graded Submission Sheet due at the end of your section.
11	Breadboard Demo	Demo of breadboarded circuits to a professor (highly recommended, but not required).
12	Soldered Protoboard Demo	Demo of soldered circuits to a professor (highly recommended, but not required).
13	Integrated Robot Deployment	None, though deployment during your section at Phake Lake is the first chance to get data for your report.
14	Rebuild and Final Deployment	None, though deployment on Saturday at Dana Point is the second and last chance to get data for your report.
15	Analyze Data & Final Report Conferences	Rough draft of report due on Tuesday at noon. Individual conferences with professors.
16	Individual Final Report & Team Poster	- Poster due by noon (12 pm) on Friday, May 1. Poster session on Wednesday, May 6 during Presentation Days at 4 pm. - Final report due Friday, May 8 at 11:59 pm.

Final Report and Poster

Poster:

• Team deliverable.
• Given during presentation days.
• Aimed at a technically-knowledgeable audience to communicate the main results of your project.
• Will be presented during poster session. Your whole team is required to be there.
• You will answer questions about your poster and also interact with your peers.

Report:

• Individual deliverable.
• Individual conference with professor during analysis week.
• Presents the results of your team’s experiments, instrumentation, and results.

Deployments

You must collect data from your deployments for your final report.

Week 13: Bernard Field Station (BFS)

• First chance to get field data which is required in the final report.
• Need a deployment plan and launch checklist.

Week 14: Dana Point

• Bus leaves from Mudd at 6:30 am on 4/25/26 and returns ~4:00 pm. Be there!

We will be hosting an optional service project on Fridays, 4/3 and 4/10, from 11:00 am - 3:00 pm (including lunch) to repair the docks (and boats) at pHake Lake. Let Prof. Helmns know if you want to participate!

Project Launch

Project Requirements

• Autonomous deployment for at least one minute with active position control.
• The deployment must end at a place where the robot can be recovered.
• Sensor package
  • Deployed on or from your AUV
  • Must use at least three sensors with at least two unique electrical interfaces (e.g., voltage-to-voltage, resistance-to-voltage, current-to-voltage, etc.).
  • The IMU, GPS, and motor current sensors don’t count toward your three sensors.

What we give you to start from

Default Robot code base (under /Default_Robot/ directory in the Git repository)

Some key pieces:

• GPS surface navigation
• Diving
• Template code for integrating your own custom libraries (ButtonSampler library)

You have a few options for launching at Dana Point

Kayaks are also available to accompany your robot out into the center of the harbor.

Resources: Support

• Full teaching team in lab hours
  • Starting Friday, March 13, the weekly writing section will become lab hours
• Profs and proctors in office hours

Resources: Stuff

• Anything in lab – sign out expensive stuff & submit error reports for anything that breaks.
  • The E80 main PCBs and protoboards
  • E80 frames, boxes and penetrator bolts
• Stuff outside lab: $50 budget per team as long as you follow purchasing instructions
  • This $50 budget must include tax, shipping, and tariff fees

Resources: Strict Purchasing Protocol

• Must be checked off by two instructors before buying
• Each team has only one designated buyer, all purchases from that one person
• Submit engineering purchase request form
  • Include team number
  • Specify Prof. Helmns as approver
  • Specify purchase is for E80
• We almost never agree to rush shipping … plan around 5-7 days lead time.

Resources: Where can I buy Stuff?

• Electronics – Digikey, Mouser, JameCo, SparkFun, Adafruit
• Mechanical – McMaster-Carr

Tips

• Make sure you consider package type! Buy adapter boards for surface mounted (SMT) parts.
• Make sure that you only buy parts that are in stock.

Resources: Our Waterproof Boxes

• Can fit about 6 wires in a penetrator bolt.
• Drill on flat faces of box: need flat rubber washers on box surface.

Resources: Our Main PCB

• GPS / Teensy / IMU
• H-Bridges + resettable fuses
• Battery LED & switch
• Input protection
• User button
• Programmable LED
• Current Monitor / Flag
• 2x Check Solder Joints
• Connector

Resources: Our Protoboard

Protoboard connects to the motherboard with a right angle header and mounts above the main PCB.

Considerations when Picking Sensors

Package type – thru hole vs. surface mount w/ adapter board

Interface

Interface	Difficulty	Details
GPIO	Easy	Using D3 and D4, can make sampler
I2C	Medium	Using SCL and SDA pins, some configuration
UART	Medium	Using RX and TX pins, some configuration
SPI	Hard	Needs to be implemented in software (bit banging)

MUST BE IN STOCK!

Experimental Design Considerations

• Purpose: What are the scientific and/or engineering goals of your E80 project? What are the social and/or environmental impacts of this choice?
• Electronics Elements: Audio, Digital interfaces, Communication, Telemetry
• Software Elements: Time of flight, Advanced navigation, Diving
• Mechanical Elements: Shape, Sensor placement, Winch, Diving, Tethers

Final Project Design Exercise

Project Ideation Activity

Recall the steps of the Engineering Design Process.

Two dispositions for thought processes

Round 1: What do you care about?

“We don’t know how to measure what we care about, so we care about what we measure” - Richard A. Tapia

• Review the Project Impact pre-reading
• Reflect individually on your project’s purpose - what would you like to study and why?
• Come together as a team and share your reflections
• Choose one of your ideas to discuss in more depth
  • What are the potential social impacts of proceeding with this project?
  • What are the potential environmental impacts of proceeding with this project?

Round 2: What do you want to measure?

• What do you want your robot to measure?
• Broadly in two categories: scientific and engineering relationships
  • Scientific examples: water quality, distribution of temperature, salinity, turbidity
  • Engineering examples: sensor accuracy, battery life, sensor or craft mechanical durability, velocity vs. power

Instructions

• Split into groups and find a big Post-It for your team
  • Write your team number on the top
• Write down any quantities that you think would be interesting to measure with/on your robot.
• Focus on quantity over quality—we’re going for as many ideas here as possible.
• Feasibility doesn’t matter (yet)!

Round 3: Give feedback on delightful ideas

• Split your team in half. Half move to the big sticky on the right, half move to the big sticky to the left.
• Use the dots to vote for the idea(s) you find most delightful or fascinating (do NOT consider feasibility at this point).
  • You get 3 votes each
  • You may vote for the same idea more than once.

Round 4: How do you want to measure it?

• Review the feedback you got from your classmates’ dot votes.
• Select 3 ideas that you wish to explore further.
• For each idea, sketch a plot of the key figure that you hope to generate as the result of your project.

Think about the axes of your measurements

• What is the independent variable?
• What is the dependent variable?

Round 4: How do you want to measure it?

• What are your…
  • Independent variable(s): e.g., \(t\), \(x\), \(y\)
  • Dependent variable(s): e.g., \(y(t)\), \(z(x,y)\)
• Specify for each variable
  • Units
  • Expected ranges
  • Resolution required (e.g., sampling frequency in time/space, sensitivity)

Round 5: What instrumentation will you use?

For each desired quantity, list out any ways that you can think of to measure that quantity.

• What is the transduction method (e.g., electrical, mechanical, chemical, combination, etc.)
• What types of sensors might you use? Think about what you’ve used or seen in E80 so far for inspiration.

Wrap Up

Deliverable	Due Date	Notes
Lab Writing Assignment Resubmits	5:00 pm on Friday, 3/6	Individual
Individual Lab Resubmits (2-4)	End of lab section in week of 3/9	Individual
Team Lab Resubmits (1, 5, 6)	End of lab section in week of 3/9	Team
Project Proposal	3:15 pm on Friday, 3/13	Team
Lab 6 Technical Memorandum	5:00 pm on Friday, 3/13	Individual