Team members:
- Bruce Chen
- Spencer Krist
- Phong Nguyen
- Eric Stevens
- Louis Tuey
Our project was suggested to us by Professor Scott Palo of the Aerospace Engineering Dept. We will be designing a small weather SONDE that will be dropped from a UAV into the ocean to measure water temperatures at various depths. The small buoy will have at its core a microprocessor that will control the data handling, RF communication, as well as GPS location. Data is taken from thermistors that are attached to a probe that reaches about a meter into the water and is then passed to the microprocessor. From there it needs to be packaged and sent to the overhead UAV, via xBee radio communication. Power management will also be important to ensure our buoy can operate for a desired 2 weeks. We only need to operate at full power when communicating directly with the UAV, otherwise the buoy should be in a "power-save" mode with limited active communication bandwidth. The purpose of this project is to measure the water temperatures at areas near melting ice caps that will help us better understand the science behind this natural phenomena.