Academic Magnet freshman Miranda Sundin holds the unused parts of an earlier version of the SeaPech robot.
Two Lowcountry schools competed internationally in an underwater robotics competition at the University of Maryland on May 13. A team from Lucy Beckham High School in Mount Pleasant and Academic Magnet High School in North Charleston constructed robots to complete missions and obstacle courses against teams from around the world.
The Varsity Raptors of Academic Magnet is no stranger to SeaPerch, the aquatic robotics competition where teams construct remotely operated vehicles to complete underwater missions. The team, made up of 12 students from all grade levels, has qualified for the international competition eight times, earning high marks each year.
And while, yes, it is a competition, and everyone would like to rank first, there’s a sense of comradery among all of the teams, hailing from all over the United States and as far as New Zealand and Egypt. The sharing of ideas and new perspectives between teams is just as rewarding as winning.
Luke Williams, Yamil Perez, Jack Oakman, Luke Zheltov, Zavier Nutting, Miranda Sundin, Noa Wallen and Cecilia Buhmeyer of Academic Magnet High School stand with several of their team's robots they made for the SeaPerch competition.
“Even if you don't win, there are so many other teams there who have completely different designs but have really good ideas,” AMHS junior Noa Wallen said. “It's just so interesting. Things that I've never thought about and talking to teams from all over the country and from all over the world.”
Tinkering away with filament and motors, the Academic Magnet team went through 10 variations of their robot before their final version. The Varsity Raptors rummaged through bins of discarded ROV parts in AMHS physics teacher and SeaPerch coach Maria Desbrow’s classroom, presenting early iterations of their robot.
“We usually collaborate on some kind of design that will optimize the hydrodynamics to be able to cut through water well, and once we try it, we can usually tell if it'll be something that we can fix or if it's just kind of a fail. I think there's a lot of trial and error in our work. Sometimes, it just sinks like a rock,” said Miranda Sundin, a freshman Varsity Raptor.
Lucy Beckham SeaPerch coach Ronda Seay, junior Zach Crabtree, junior Olan Murphy and SeaPerch coach Nora Hlavac at the SeaPerch competition on May 13.
Some designs look more square and stout, others are modeled after V-wings flown in the Star Wars movies. Eventually, they landed on a robot that utilized a "plug and play" method for their motors, making them easy to replace if they fail.
Meanwhile, at Lucy Beckham, a smaller underwater robotics team formed this year. Olan Murphy and Zach Crabtree spent several evenings after school hanging out by Murphy’s pool. They weren’t lounging around, though. The duo used Murphy’s backyard as the testing field for their robot.
“We had to learn how stuff handled on the water. We've never done any sort of underwater robotics,” Murphy said. “We were able to do a lot of testing. He was over probably three or four times a week and we make our changes, test them, record some data, conduct some experiments, see what we had to change, change it, test it again.”
The team modified the base stock design provided by SeaPerch, scaling their robot down 25 percent to increase its speed. The competition includes a timed obstacle course and a timed mission course. Murphy and Crabtree needed to keep their time down while learning how to maneuver their robot underwater.
“Waterproofing is something that's a real struggle. Hydrodynamics, which is how the water flows around the robot without experiencing more drag or helping to increase speed, that was difficult,” Murphy said. “In competition, the main issues that we faced was stuff being inconsistent and falling apart during one of our rounds for the obstacle course. Some of our (pool) noodles fell off of our robot and we had to bring them in and fix them before time ran out.”
Their team, called Yikes!, placed 33rd out of 70 in the overall high school competition. Murphy said he and Crabtree were thrilled to place in the top half of the high school teams, particularly because it was their first year competing. The Varsity Raptors placed 18th in the overall open class division, out of 19 middle and high school teams.
Both teams are already gearing up for SeaPerch 2024, eager to refine their models and aim for success — but more importantly, learn from their failures.
“Every robot is completely different than what I pictured the competition would be like. So going into it next year, we know the designs that do well so we can already start with the well-working design,” said AMHS freshman Zavier Nutting.
