Underwater ROV Team - Quest Book - Fall 2026 (F26)

The Great Objective: Build a Competitive ROV for the MATE International ROV Competition

Design, build, and field an underwater ROV capable of completing MATE competition mission tasks.

Mechanical
- Finalize frame dimensions & design
- Cut, assemble, and complete the aluminum frame
- Install top (insulation board) and bottom (adjustable weight) buoyancy
- Design gripper, motor mount, camera mount, tube mount, in-tube shelf
Electrical & Controls
- Wire the tether network (ground, power, signal) and terminate at 15m
- Solder motor and Arduino signal connections
- Build the electrical box with strain relief
- Begin onboard control system / controller development
- Start computer vision work

Score	Criteria
10/10	Aluminum frame fully cut, assembled, and rigid; top insulation buoyancy and bottom adjustable-weight buoyancy both installed and the vehicle floats level and trimmable
7/10	Frame cut and assembled; one buoyancy system (top or bottom) installed and functional
4/10	Frame cut and assembled but not yet rigid/final, or assembled with no buoyancy installed
0/10	Dimensions/design not finalized, no aluminum cut

Minimum Requirements: Dimensions and design finalized, and aluminum cut and assembled into a standing frame.

Score	Criteria
10/10	Mechanical gripper, motor mount, camera mount, and tube mount all designed and fabricated; in-tube shelf designed and installed; wire spinning/tangle issue solved
7/10	All components designed; most fabricated and mounted; wire tangle solution designed but not yet installed
4/10	Gripper and motor mount designed; camera/tube mounts and shelf still in progress
0/10	No mounts or gripper designed

Minimum Requirements: Gripper and motor mount designed, with gripper mounted to the bilge pump.

Score	Criteria
10/10	Full network, power, and ground lines cut and terminated to 15m; penetrators installed on all wires; ground-up network and Arduino signal lines spliced/soldered and terminated; motor power/ground and motor-to-Arduino signal lines soldered; electrical box built with strain relief
7/10	Wiring cut to 15m and most connections soldered; electrical box built but strain relief incomplete
4/10	Wiring plan finalized and some soldering done, but not cut to full 15m length
0/10	No wiring or soldering started

Minimum Requirements: Penetrators on all wires and motor power/ground soldered, even if signal wiring is incomplete.

Score	Criteria
10/10	Controller hardware/layout finalized and Arduino signal handling code running end-to-end (controller input to motor response) on the bench
7/10	Controller input scheme decided and Arduino receiving/parsing signals, but not yet driving motors
4/10	Architecture/approach chosen (e.g. controller type, Arduino signal protocol) but no working code yet
0/10	No work started on controller or onboard control system

Minimum Requirements: Controller input scheme and Arduino signal architecture decided, with initial code sketched even if untested.

Score	Criteria
10/10	Working prototype detecting/tracking a competition-relevant target from live camera feed
7/10	Camera feed pipeline working with basic image processing (e.g. color/shape detection)
4/10	Tooling/library chosen and camera feed successfully captured in software
0/10	No computer vision work started

Minimum Requirements: Camera feed successfully captured and displayed in software.

Quest Name	Description	Score
Decide on dimensions & design	Finalize overall ROV frame dimensions and design
Cut & assemble aluminum	Cut and assemble the aluminum frame
Insulation board buoyancy (top)	Install top buoyancy via insulation board
Adjustable weight buoyancy (bottom)	Install bottom buoyancy via adjustable weights
Strain relief (frame)	Add strain relief on frame-side wiring
Design mechanical gripper	Design the ROV's gripper/manipulator
Mount to bilge pump	Mount gripper mechanism to bilge pump
Solve wire spinning tangle	Design fix for wire tangling during rotation
Design motor mount	Design mounting for thrusters/motors
Design camera mount	Design mounting for onboard camera
Design tube mount	Design mounting for the main pressure tube
Design in-tube shelf	Design internal shelf/layout inside the pressure tube

Quest Name	Description	Score
Penetrators on all wires	Install penetrators for all wires passing through the tube
Ground up network - splice & solder	Splice and solder the ground-up network wiring
Arduino signals up network - terminal	Terminate Arduino signal lines through the network
Ground & power to all motors (solder)	Solder ground and power connections to all motors
Motor signals to Arduino - solder	Solder motor signal lines to Arduino
Design electrical box	Design the surface/onboard electrical enclosure
Strain relief (electrical box)	Add strain relief on the electrical box
Cut network, power, ground to 15m	Cut and prep tether lines to full 15m length
Onboard control system / controller (start)	Begin controller input scheme and onboard control system development
Computer vision	Begin computer vision development for mission tasks