Water Sampling Over Sand Vehicle

Noah Chong, Yvonne Fernandez, Sam Jin, Julian Li,

Kien Nguyen, Danielle Shen, Alan Wang, Justin Welsh
Work was supported by Dr. Brian Phillips,
Hannah Watsky, and the A. James Clark School of Engineering.

Mission: Design and build an over sand vehicle that is CAD Drawings and Images
able to autonomously navigate through a rocky
terrain to a pool of water and complete a set of tasks.
Base Objectives
● Navigate to within 250 mm of the edge of the
water pool
● Measure and transmit whether the water is fresh,
salt or polluted water
Advanced Objectives
● Measure and transmit the depth of the water in the
pool to within 4 mm
● Collect a sample of 30 – 45 ml of water from the
pool
Constraints
● No lithium batteries or combustion engines
● Cannot exceed 2.5 kg
● Must fit within a 300 x 300 mm footprint
● Must be able to run all systems at full power for at
least 10 minutes without recharging its energy
source Product Specifications
● Budget: $350 ● Chassis: Pine Wood
● Battery: 12V 3600 mAh Ni-MH Vannon Battery
● Motors: 12V 227:1 Metal Gearmotor 25x56 mm
Objective Solutions ● Wheels: 4 Off-Road RC Wheels (95mm Diameter, 35mm Width)
1. Navigation: Main loop consisted of path correction, ● Sensors: 2 HC-SR-04 Ultrasonic Sensors; WINGONEER TCS230 TCS3200
obstacle avoidance, and mission site alignment. Color Sensor; SainSmart High Sensitivity Water Sensor; Self-Made
2. Water Quality: A color sensor was used in Conductivity Sensor (Graphite Leads)
conjunction with a conductivity sensor to ● 3D Printed Parts: Motor Housing, Wheel Connectors, Water Well,
determine the type of water. If the water was Lowering Mechanism
green, the sample was deemed polluted. ● Other: 2 Qunqi L298N H-bridge steppers; Peristaltic Pump
3. Water Collection: A peristaltic liquid pump was ● Weight: 2.3 kg
utilized to transfer water from the pool to a water
well mounted on the OSV. One end of the pump’s
tube was attached to the lowering mechanism and Obstacles and Solutions
the other to the water well. ● Our Arduino, peralistic liquid pump, depth sensor, and distance sensors
went missing.
○ Purchased new items immediately
Motor Calculations:
● Wheels fell off due to high motor torque.
○ Used paper towels and super glue to increase adhesive strength.
● RF communication was unstable.
○ Used variable motor speed to overcome inaccuracy at high delay.
● Lowering gear failed to function.
○ Used a higher torque motor, sanded down gear profiles, and added
linear restriction to prevent unwanted movements.
● The day before the product demonstration, there was an incident
involving our OSV. The wheels fell off and the 3D printed parts broke.
○ Worked diligently to reassemble OSV using duct tape and super glue

Results: Although our team faced many challenges, we managed to

complete all base missions and one advanced mission. We learned about
the value of teamwork, working through adversity, and preparing for the
unexpected. Most importantly, we refined our basic engineering skills to
better equip us for future endeavors.