This is The Typewriter Repairmen's page for the 2025 National Underwater Robotics Challenge, a competition put on by Si Se Puede in Tempe, AZ. Please visit their facebook page for latest updates.
The Typewriter Repairmen is a family robotics club. Jim, the Principal Instigator, is a "retired" mechanical engineer. He has worked with the local FIRST high school robotics team NERDS for the past 18 seasons as an engineering mentor, and discovered that it's about the most fun thing there is. Jim's daughter Carol has been playing with robots since high school in 2007. Jim's brother David is an Electrical Engineer at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory, and also runs a side business Cathode Corner, which sells neat electronic gadgets. David's son Linus has been playing with robots since high school in 2012.
Link to the 2009 NURC robot notBob
Link to the 2010 NURC robot Babs
Link to the 2012 NURC autonomous robot Biff
All through the project we have been posting videos on youtube.
Contact us at jforb427@gmail.com
June 5 2025
Carol produced the team video.
June 4 2025
Carol has been working with Sebastian, did some coding and added a button to center the camera, so it's easier to see where you are when driving. Now she is working on adding exponential control to make small movements easier. More practice with the wrench and torpedo. We will make a few more topedoes, and hope one gets close enough to score. Jim has been working on the poster, and submitted it. One more day of fun before we leave for the competition!
June 1 2025
David has been tinkering with the torpedo design, which now includes cork stoppers in the ends. He visited today, and we installed the launch tube on Sebastian, and tested the latest version of the torpedo. It almost works.
May 26 2025
Carol has been practicing piloting Cadet and Babs. The controls for Cadet are rather challenging, and we will need to work on getting it working better. But Babs seems to be working pretty well. The team will have to discuss who will do what at the competition. Carol is more comfortable with Babs, and was easily able to unscrew the plug with the claw.
May 24 2025
Linus and David visited Jim, Carol, and Janet again today. David has been working on the torpedo design, and tested it several times. By the end of the day it was almost working well enough, but still not quite as fast as we want. We worked on the launch concept, and ended up with a tube that holds the torpedo in place and locks the propeller from turning, and then uses a solenoid to push it forward enough to unlock the propeller. The propeller is powered by a rubber band, as used in a toy airplane.
Jim worked in the wrench for the data recorder, adding it to the stick that will be used to manipulate rings on other game pieces. It now pivots, and seems to work well to turn the square plug a quarter turn at a time by driving forward, after hooking the plug.
We discussed having both the Cadet and Babs ROVs run the mission. This would require two pilots, but would allow us to complete the tasks almost twice as fast. We will plan to do this. Carol will probably pilot Cadet, and Linus will pilot Babs. This will require David and Jim to decide which will be mission director, and which will be tether person.
May 18 2025
Linus and David visited Jim, Carol, and Janet again today. Carol had installed a different pressure (depth) sensor into Cadet, and today we got it working. It still needs more calibration. David modified the software to make it have better smoothing. David brought some parts for the Data Recorder prop, and we made a wrench to attach to the ROV to turn the plug. It kind of worked, but driving it is real tricky. Jim suggested making a different wrench that will pivot on the ROV as it drives forward. He made part of a prototype, but did not yet attach it, so it is still untested.
David worked on a torpedo using parts of a design that Carol was working on, using a model airplane rubber band and cut down propeller. David put it in a plastic tube, and attatched small fins to it. He also experimented with the release solenoid we used in 2010, and thinks we have a way to use it to hold the propeller from turning until it is activated.
We discussed whether to use a claw or just a stick to manipulate the props. We think they can all be done with a stick, so we will not use the claw this year.
May 3 2025
Linus and David visited Jim, Carol, and Janet today. David and Carol searched the internet for a better pressure sensor, but didn't really have much luck. We got a new team picture, and discussed the mission a little bit. The props pictures are now up, so we can now get a better idea of how to tackle the egg and the release mechanism.
Copyright 2009-2024 Jim Forbes, David Forbes