CAUTION – An Innovative Aquatic Platform to Gather Water Quality Data for Environmental Studies

Abstract

Abbas Diab is currently an undergraduate at University of Maryland Eastern Shore pursuing a degree in Engineering with a mechanical engineering specialization. During his senior undergraduate year, Mr. Diab along with a group of undergraduates, worked on several academic and research projects. He designed and built several ground, air, and water platforms for precision agriculture reasons. Currently he holds the position of chair of the ASME UMES chapter.

Summer Exchange Program: A Unique Platform to Broaden Exposure and Address Several Dimensions of Learning

“…The water quality sensors were mounted on a winch that could be programmed to deploy the sensors to collect data at the surface of the water body as well as other specified depths. Figure 2 shows a catamaran type autonomous boat (CAUTION) that was originally developed at UMES by an exchange student from UMCP during the 2014/2015 summer exchange program under the supervision of the primary author [12].…”

“…Lack of proper documentation also required repeating some of the efforts that were undertaken in the past, particularly related with the integration of electronics, sensors and associated coding and tuning of control gains. Some alteration and redesign were also undertaken to improve the servo-mechanism and rudder design for the steering system; other than that the basic mechanical platform of the original design [12] was retained. An UMES senior (Mr. Mohsin Mehmood) who had some prior exposure to the CAUTION platform design and operation was assigned to work with Mr. Prout with the goal of deploying CAUTION in an UMES pond with all modifications and repairs, to demonstrate improved functionality and all operational capabilities of the original platform.…”

“…As in the past, synergy with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) supported project(s) has continued to provide additional impetus and breadth to these endeavors. Besides supporting graduate students as well as undergraduate students at UMES, these efforts have continued to be integrated with UMES component of the Summer Exchange Program among UMCP, UMES, UMBC, Capital Technology University, and MSU initiated in summer of 2009 with support from NASA HQ and continued through all subsequent summers so far with MDSGC funds [11,12] ) .…”

STRIDER: Semi-Autonomous Tracking Robot with Instrumentation for Data-Acquisition and Environmental Research

“…At University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) efforts to develop autonomous robotic boat platforms have been ongoing for the past few years [1][2][3] . These efforts were largely funded by Maryland Space Grant Consortium and NASA to promote design and experiential learning endeavors of undergraduate students at UMES in multidisciplinary team settings that parallel similar undertakings in the real-world.…”