Competiton Strategy
The primary strategy of The Water Dogs was to create a durable system architecture that is lightweight and designed with speed, stability, and high buoyancy in mind. As our boat was built last year, our main strategy is to work on perfecting software.
Hull Design
As a result, The Water Dogs chose to use a diverse assortment of materials with the hull being cut out of foam with hardened Fiberglass coating the outside. In addition, as one of the main goals of The Water Dogs was stability, a different hull design was thought out than what is typically used. The Water Dogs decided to go with a rotating-spherical hull design which allows the boat to rise up and stay extremely stable, which is vital when shooting the pre-loaded balls and water.
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Software
The Water Dogs placed a strong emphasis on simulation testing to allow our software team to work efficiently. The decision to use simulation software allows for the two teams to work simultaneously and optimizes the limited number of working hours before competition. Furthermore, It allows the software team to test their software multiple times throughout their software building process. |
Sub-mechanisms
In order to increase versatility, a turret system was implemented on top of the hull, allowing the boat to have no real "front side," giving our software team as much control as possible. Additionally, three thrusters are placed to drive our boat, allowing the boat to have a strafing motion. Although this is an out-of-the-box idea, it gives us an advantage over the competition for those who have to turn around the buoys.
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