Robosub Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)

Comparison between our old sub Marlin (left) and our new design (Nemo) on the right

sub comparison

I joined the mechanical team at a time when we had a massive project at early design stages. I took on the most complex sub assembly of our entire submarine. At the time, I had never used any CAD software before and had to learn and fail quickly. I initally sketched my ideas for our redesigned modularly camera enclosure. I checked my sealing surfaces for my theoretical design to ensure it could all properly seal and prevent water ingress. After, I jumped into learning CAD and designing all at once. I created 3 different back and front plate designs based on my initial sketch plans. This included different ways to incorporate the 'ears' onto our design. The 'ears' held together our entire camera enclosure under pressure, so I had to be sure it would withstand the relevant pressures and dynamics. Therefore, I did some basic hand calculations and checked those calculations via fea to ensure our maximum stress did not exceed yeild of our aluminum plates and that our deflection was acceptable to properly apply preload to the threaded rods. After designing, we created drawings and chose Type 3 anodization to prevent galvanic corrosion when our aluminum backplate interfacing with our carbon fiber meb was immersed in ocean salt water. In the next section is a view of one drawing sent for manufacturing.

back plate fea

The final back plate design sent for manufacturing ->. After modeling the parts and creating an assembly, I created a bill of materials to understand total assembly cost. After approval and go ahead from our business team, I created the drawings and go them checked by other members of the mechanical team. We then sent them to our sponsor for manufacturing.

back plate