RAM: Six Thruster Tortuga

Robotics @ Maryland's ( ram.umd.edu ) Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Tortuga maneuvers side to side using its new pair of top and bottom thrusters. This is in the Space Systems Lab's ( ssl.umd.edu ) Neutral Buoyancy Research facility.

The two thrusters were retrofitted onto last years vehicle using the maker dropper power outputs and by squeezing in another pair of motor controllers. This also clears the way to begin testing our pipe following and bin hovering algorithms.

Please excuse the camera work, I was not able to see the view finder while I held the camera underwater.