By Peter Kimball
John, Vickie, Chris, and I installed an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) in the drill hole at our candidate field site on Saturday. This instrument emits sound pulses into the water below at a known frequency and then measures the Doppler shift in returned echoes to determine the velocity (magnitude and direction) of the water currents below. We're leaving the instrument running out at our candidate field site and traveling out to refuel the generator that's powering it whenever weather allows. We're hoping to gain an understanding of how tidal activity drives water currents there, and thus be able to plan our robots' dives so that the robots aren't swimming upstream any more than necessary.
Bill and Josh worked up a frame to secure the instrument in a known orientation in the fish hut. We installed the frame on Saturday after chipping out accumulated ice from the sides of the drill hole. We ran into a problem when the cordless drill batteries wouldn't function in the cold and we Macgyvered a solution with a power supply, two multimeter leads, and a wine cork. Worked great!
Bill and Josh worked up a frame to secure the instrument in a known orientation in the fish hut. We installed the frame on Saturday after chipping out accumulated ice from the sides of the drill hole. We ran into a problem when the cordless drill batteries wouldn't function in the cold and we Macgyvered a solution with a power supply, two multimeter leads, and a wine cork. Worked great!
RSS Feed