8-15-11

Today Kelly, Joach, Martin, Alexis, and myself worked on creating prototype torpedo's for the AUV. The first one we made was of a plastic material, it was about half a inch long. We tested in air and it worked awesome, in water not so well. On our second attempt we made a larger torpedo of the same material but double the length. That one also ended up in failure. Our third and final try of the day was made of aluminum. The aluminum torpedo worked okay but was not very hydrodynamic. Our next plan is to add some fins to make it more hydrodynamic. As a result I am reading up on the concept of hydrodynamics.