This week was spent doing lots of small adjustments on the ROV. I needed to get the buoyancy and mass to both be centered on the origin of the design. Although adjustable weights are included in the design, it is good to calculate that it can be balanced in the range the weights can be adjusted to. to ensure this, I thickened the adjustable weights.
I spent a solid chuck of the start of the week making a master spreadsheet to help with the buoyancy and balance calculations. This spreadsheet takes the center’s of buoyancy and mass, along with the magnitude of buoyancy and mass to calculate the required values for the flotation and adjustable weights.
Over break I realized that the lights should be further forward so that their light is not blocked by the buoyancy foam. I needed to add more mass to the front, so I thickened the back of the lights to mount them further forward.
After this I added cable channels to the flotation for the lights and clearance for the hardware mounting the light. I then re-designed the front and rear buoyancy foam to be identical and a more simplified shape that works better when changing base values to adjust its volume.
Then I used the spreadsheet to balance the buoyancy and mass. I reduced the volume of the center foam to come down to under the necessary value by the amount that needed to be added in the rear to balance the buoyancy. That amount had to be balanced with the mass added to the front with the lights and adjustable masses. I used a spreadsheet so that all these values could depend on each other and evaluate immediately when base values are changed.
