We are preparing for the next Sea Trial for the Aqua robots. At currently have 3 different members of the Aqua family on the bench in different states of disassembly. In addition, we have a new network of sensor nodes being finished and readied for testing. Aqua 1.0, the original robot, is pretty much ready to go. Ramius, the next generation of robot that was tested last year is still in parts, but we had it together before and it should be a "simple" matter to re-assembly and testing. The newest member of the family line, Kroy, is also being assembled.
Last year we had problems changing from Nickle Metal Hydride battery technology to Lithium polymer technology. The startup ciruit inside the robot was not quite right, and the robot had a lot of trouble starting when the newer longer-lasting batteries were in. We have a lot of re-designed circuit boards including a new power controller piggybacked on the new motor controller board Chris cooked up. This new board will be used in both Ramius and Kroy, and they are both waiting for a few last-minute debugging cycles on the board before it goes into the robot.
When all is said and done, Ramius will be retrofitted to be identical to Kroy, but with the field test coming on so fast this may not be possible until after the field trials. Other new technologies include lots and lots of stuff on the software side, including really untethered operation. Right now it's all pretty stressful for the team and everybody is juggling complex scheduling tradeoffs to combine research, end-of-term stuff, and robot assembly.
