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MeCO Underwater

This guide will detail the step-by-step procedure for getting MeCO water ready. These steps are essential for MeCO to operate efficiently and safely underwater without encountering leaks or incorrect ballasting. Since MeCO is a large robot, it may need to be reassembled on-site. TODO: Refer to the Travel-guide for those instructions.

• Step 1: Ballast & Battery
• Step 2: Center Tube
• Step 3: Side-Tubes
• Step 4: Thruster Configuration
• Step 5: Proteus and Vacuum Seal
• Step 6: Miscellaneous

The first step is to ensure the weights are in place, and the side-tube batteries are installed:

Make sure to place the weights evenly.

Side-tube Ballast	Battery Orientation
Complete Battery Modules	Fresh Water vs Salt Water

For fresh water we have 2 weights on both sides of the holder. For salt water, we have an extra weight on one side of the battery holder.

This is what the center tube weights should look like:

Center-Tube Weights

Weight Placement

We will start with the center tube installation before we install the side tube internals. This works better for our configuration, if you have MeCO set up differently, you can change the order of installation.

Install the MDF

Seal the Rear

Make sure to align the main MDF board so that it is parallel to the floor. You can check the cameras in the front to make sure it is aligned correctly.

We also want to ensure that a 9-volt battery is attached to the magnetic switch system. Lastly, after installation, you can add the pressure seal cap. The cap will allow you to vacuum seal the tube.

9V Battery

Pressure Seal Cap

Now we can move on to the side-tubes. The side-tube installation is a little more complex as there are HREye modules in the front of each of the tubes. They need to be connected to the teensy located on the MDF board. We also need to connect the battery to the main MDF board.

HREye Wires

HREye Teensy Connection

Battery Connection

The batteries go in first. There is a slot at the bottom of the battery holders that allows the HREye wires to pass through to the MDF. Make sure to direct the wires through that slot and onto the Teensy on the MDF.

Now we can go ahead with the rest of the installation. We can slide the main MDF into the tube, and seal the tube.

Side-Tube Installation

O Ring Seal

Pressure Seal Cap

The yellow line on the first image shows the battery position, and the maroon line shows where the MDF goes. Once they are securely in place, attach the rear cap. Then you can add the O-ring to complete the seal. After that add the pressure seal cap.

The next step would be to attach the thrusters. MeCO uses 5 thrusters: three are attached to a U-shaped bracket in the rear. We can attach this rear bracket to Picatinny rails on the frame. The other two thrusters can be attached similarly on the sides.

U Bracket Thruster Configuration

Left Thruster

Right Thruster

The rear U-bracket should be attached at the 6th rung on the Picatinny rail. This ensures optimal thruster placement for unbiased motion. You can adjust the positioning based on how your MeCO responds to it.

The penultimate step would be to attach the Proteus Siren module to the underside of the robot. Siren needs to be placed on the exterior. After that, we can vacuum seal the tubes to ensure that the tubes cannot leak or come undone underwater.

Proteus Unit

Vacuum Seal

Proteus should be securely fastened underneath the robot. Remember to disconnect it prior to disassembling the center tube. The value pressure seal caps allow the attachment of the vacuum seal module. Refer to the image on the right.

The last step is to attach ballast weights wherever necessary. Due to MeCO's bulky design, there is no fixed ballasting configuration.

Ballast Weights

Top Ballast

Bottom Ballast

Ballasting an AUV the size of MeCO is tricky. You will require some trial and error to get it right, and it is not necessary that our configuration will work for you. We have attached Picatinny rails in relevant places that allow you to adjust the position of the weights accordingly. We recommend dropping the robot in the water first or in a ballast tank to determine the optimal location of the weights.