Build Log: Improving our "Fastest Underwater Human"
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Hello Reader, Welcome back to The Build Log! Exciting news! We started planning to rebuild our underwater scooter that we've built at the beginning of the year. Even though in the last video about this vehicle we've said that it's completed for now (because we're too scared to use it at full power), we're thinking that we can improve it to go even faster. See our YouTube video to find out what this project is about: This time, we'll hopefully won't settle for anything less than 7m/s underwater (the max speed of a great white shark) - and the current max speed we managed to achieve is 5m/s. Since you are our most loyal fans, we want to ask for your input on this design:
The main goal is to make it faster than a great white shark, so here are the main areas, which we would like to improve: 1._Hydrodynamics of the whole system: In the video we have tried to make every effort to make the scooter as hydrodynamic as possible. I know that there are still ways that we could improve on. One problem, for example, is our position behind the scooter -> We want it to be exactly in line with the scooter, but in reality it's much less ideal than the simulated position. See the picture below: 2._Propeller design and material: We have designed propellers of this scooter based on the ones that came with the motor. We are sure we could come up with a design which is much more effective. The other issue is the material of the propellers. Both of our plastic propellers showed signs of excessive wear at the end of our testing. The ones printed in resin unfortunately broke during testing. I believe that the only solution to this issue is using metal ones. Any suggestions on how to do that would be helpful (3D printing? CNC milling?). We also welcome any other suggestions to the design of the scooter! Please complete the form below. Thank you!
Next week, we'll give you another update on our AUV and the next mission we're planning to achieve :) If you want to build an underwater project, the easiest way to get involved is to build the entire CPS 3 drone with our DIY Kit -> now available!
You don't have to buy any components separately, because they're all in the one box delivered to you. Cheers, Piotrek, CPSdrone PS: You can access all of the previous releases of the newsletter here. |
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