When we got to the pool we discovered that the IVER was still designed to float in sea water, so we had to re-ballast it. We took off all of the lead weights located along the bottom of the IVER but it was still a bit nose-heavy. At that point we realized that we had some bubble wrap so a couple of us went into the Poly Canyon Market and bought a roll of duct tape.
We were then able to launch the IVER and learning how to drive it around the pool. Matt Maxson drove it first to show the rest of us how it goes. He even got to demonstrate what the IVER does when it loses WiFi connection in manual mode. He drove it backwards too fast and because of the bubble wrap it tried diving to the bottom of the pool. Thirty seconds to a minute after losing the WiFi signal it rose to the surface and he was able to re-establish contact. After this we each took turns driving the IVER and "catching" it (making sure it didn't hit the pool walls).
While this was all going on Frank and Dr. Clark got out the VideoRay ROV so that we could all have a go at driving it in the pool. The ROV was fun to drive and a lot more maneuverable than the IVER. In fact the IVER's turn radius was too large for the pool and we ended up making a lot of three point turns. We also got to see how the sonar on the ROV worked and what the pool walls looked like on the sonar.
On the right you can see a picture of the ROV and IVER in the water near each other. It was funny seeing the ROV driving circles around the IVER. It also made it more of a challenge for the IVER driver to keep it from getting wrapped up in the ROV's tether. We all had a lot of fun driving both vehicles and look forward to making great progress before and during spring break.
If you want to see more pictures of this awesome day of training look here.
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