Final Project¶
The Idea¶
Since Armenia has many mountains, there are numerous unexplored lakes both on mountain peaks and in other areas. My idea is to create a Submarine for small lakes to explore the local fauna. The most important thing for me is to study the inhabitants of the lakes. The submarine can be used by limnologists to explore freshwater ecosystems and study fish populations. With the help of its AI-powered camera, it can detect and classify different fish species. While researching, I realized that making a submarine is not so easy, so I will try to use the weekly assignments to help build it.
After explaining my idea to our instructor Elen, she helped me create a sketch, which I want to share with you:
The submarine will have:
- A camera (maybe AI) for recording fish, or if there’s AI, it will detect the type of fish.
- A pressure sensor to measure the pressure at the current depth.
- A temperature sensor to measure the water temperature, as the temperature varies at different depths.
- An oxygen sensor in the water (This is not certain :D) since this sensor is quite expensive, but maybe I will figure something out.
- A motor and servo motors for controlling the submarine.
- Electronic valves for loading water to dive.
Researching¶
How a submarine works¶
After researching, I understood how a submarine works, and the most interesting part was learning how it dives.
This image was taken from an article on Wikimedia, which are free of charge to use.
As seen in the picture, the submarine increases its weight by taking in water, which is a very interesting solution in my opinion. At the top, you can see valves that open, allowing water to enter a special tank, while air exits through the valves.
Archimedes’ principle¶
At first, I thought the depth of the submarine’s immersion depended on how much weight it gained with water, but after further research, I finally understood that Archimedes principle is at work here. In order for the submarine to dive, its weight must balance with the buoyant force.
Let’s look at this image.
This image was taken from an article on Wikipedia, which are free of charge to use.
This shows the buoyancy of an object. The buoyant force (Fₐ) balances the weight of the object (Fᵖ), Were (Fᵖ). So as we know Fa = ρgV, were:
- Fa is the buoyant force.
- ρ is the density of the fluid.
- g is the acceleration due to gravity.
- V is the volume of the fluid displaced by the object.
So, we need to balance the weight of the submarine with the buoyant force, and with the fins and motor, it should be easy and simple to dive.
Choosing Material¶
As the body where the water will be taken in, I think I will use 2 sizes acrylic tubes.
On both sides, there will be plugs with seals to ensure tightness, and the water will flow through two tubes.
❗The most important part is ensuring tightness, which I will focus on during Fab Academy.