The goal of the Underwater Diver Project was to improve the accuracy of an underwater tracking system used by a scuba diver. The original setup used by the team’s sponsor, Dr. Rassweiler, suffered from error because of drift in the rope. Dr. Rassweiler is a professor at Florida State University who studies and surveys coral reefs and their health overtime. He regularly checks the condition of coral and other marine features. The team has worked with Dr. Rassweiler to improve how he logs underwater locations.
Previously, Dr. Rassweiler used a global positioning system (GPS) floating in a waterproof case that attached to him by rope while he was diving. While this system was easy to use and transport, it had low accuracy since a GPS does not work underwater. The rope between the diver and the surface varied in slack throughout the dive. This caused errors in recording the exact location of the coral. The first model also gave no sense of the diver's position relative to the GPS.
To improve accuracy, the new prototype featured new components such as a reel, a mobile phone, and fins. These additions were tested separately and then combined into one system to reduce errors and provide more precise data points. The final system used a floating waterproof box with fins mounted to the bottom surface to maintain an accurate heading. A phone is used within the box logging location and heading data. The diver connected a dive rope with marked measurements to a manual reel attached to themselves. Every time the diver wants to note a point of interest, they write down the depth, time, and line length with their waterproof notepad. They can then enter that data into a program to get the underwater locations.
Project Sponsor
Senior Design Coordinator
Project Advisor