From Mars To Marine Archaeology:

From Mars to Marine Archaeology: A Report on the Jeremy Project

Jeffrey M. Ota, Christopher A. Kitts Jeremy Bates, and Aaron Weast Santa Clara Remote Extreme Environment Mechanisms Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering Santa Clara University 500 El Camino Real Santa Clara, CA 95053 650-604-0421 [email protected]

Abstract - In August 1998, Santa Clara University (SCU) 4. Conclusion conducted a marine archeological expedition off the 5. Acknowledgements coast of Alaska with the use of a modified Deep Ocean 6. Biographies Engineering Phantom XTL underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Conducted jointly with NASA, 1. Introduction NOAA, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Department of Interior, and the U.S. Navy Arctic Submarine Research Lab, the Founded in 1998, the Santa Clara Remote Extreme mission goals were to locate a lost whaling fleet that Environment Mechanisms (SCREEM) Laboratory sank near Barrow, Alaska in 1871 and to test NASA’s conducts world-class education and research in the underwater 3D mapping technology. Using the stereo development of advanced mission systems capable of image capture and processing system adopted from the operating in remote and extreme environments. SCREEM conducts a variety of yearly projects involving Mars Pathfinder mission, the expedition team found the complete development of robotic vehicles such as positive evidence of a sunken ship near the last known spacecraft and underwater rovers. Students then location of the whaling fleet. This accomplishment set a operate these systems during applied missions or precedence in being the first successful state permitted expeditions in order to perform scientific studies, to shipwreck search in the history of Alaska. Named "The validate advanced technology, and/or to provide Jeremy Project" after the name of the principal student educational services. These project-based activities are investigator, this project showcases many of the positive developed by the SCREEM lab directors to be aspects of hands-on underwater science and achievable by small teams of senior-level engineering education. Benefits include science driven undergraduates, are student managed and engineered, engineering, simple designs allowing complete require the integration of knowledge across a variety of understanding of the system, rapid schedule permitting disciplines, and involve development activities across all full exposure to the mission lifecycle from conception to lifecycle phases. [1] field operation, integration of science and engineering students and departments, involvement with multiple Educational Objectives external organizations, and the excitement of executing a novel and compelling student mission. Traditional engineering education programs typically focus on analyzing and optimizing designs with respect This paper reports on the mission and accomplishments to a specific discipline. Those programs that do engage of The Jeremy Project as well as the technical systems in system-level design often limit their scope to the used in its execution. Finally, the future plans of conceptual design phase. applying the technology to marine archaeology will be discussed as part of an ongoing program in student- The SCREEM lab's program takes the next step by developing systems through all lifecycle phases; this driven underwater research. includes conceptual design, detailed analysis, prototyping, fabrication, integration, test, and field operation. This broadened scope provides a richer and Table of Contents more realistic experience for students and holds them 1. Introduction accountable for the decisions made in the conceptual 2. The Jeremy Project design phase. Furthermore, the developed systems have a level of complexity that require expertise and 3. Future Marine Archaeology Applications analysis in a number of disciplines that typically include Figure 1. The Barnacle Micro-satellite a) sounding rocket configuration (left) and b) orbital configuration (right). Figure 2. The Artemis picosatellite structural design, thermal analysis, embedded systems, The first ParaSat spacecraft, named Barnacle, is communications, dynamics and control. Finally, these currently being prepared for launch on board an projects are managed and engineered by students; not experimental sounding rocket in late 1999 [5]; a second only must they justify and engineer their systems, but version of this same design is also being considered for they must also manage the tasks and resources required an orbital launch in early 2000. See figures 1 a) and b), to support the project. respectively. Barnacle’s missions include characterizing experimental sensors and validating the space operation This approach requires several strategies to properly of a new low cost spacecraft computer. Barnacle was scope the projects and to provide meaningful developed in less than one year, involved six educational experiences. Simplicity allows all involved undergraduate engineering students, and required a students to understand the overall system and permits cash budget of less than $7,500. timely completion. Early prototyping serves to explore the design problem and to allow the team to gain a The second ParaSat spacecraft is a hockey puck-sized sense of its own capabilities. Low-cost albeit often risky picosatellite [2] (see figure 2) that was built by Artemis, a approaches permit the projects to be completed within team of six female engineers. The project is part of the available monetary resources. And the use of formal Stanford University’s Orbiting Picosatellite Automated managerial and design methods both serve to teach Launcher (OPAL) spacecraft and has been delivered for these techniques as well as to add a conceptual a launch in September 1999. The Artemis picosatellite structure to the project. In order to develop this missions include testing the feasibility of the picosatellite educational strategy, the SCREEM lab has instituted two concept and conducting a science experiment using programs to incorporate these principles into both multiple picosatellites to research the effects of lightning spacecraft and underwater ROV projects. on the outer ionosphere. Much like Barnacle, Artemis was developed and delivered in less than one year and The ParaSat Spacecraft Program will also be required to keep a cash budget of less than $7,500. SCREEM’s spacecraft program has the goal of producing student managed and engineered spacecraft Underwater Rover Program that contribute to the educational experience while also providing a platform capable of supporting inexpensive SCREEM’s underwater rover program commenced in albeit risky space experiments [4]. Named the ParaSat early 1998 with a student team refurbishing and space flight program, this initiative relies heavily on the operating NASA’s TROV (Telepresence Remotely use of corporate donations, reengineered commercial off Operated Vehicle) underwater rover as a demonstration the shelf (COTS) equipment, HAM radio for the Arctic and Antarctic Access Workshop hosted by communications, battery power, and simple operational NASA, NOAA, and the US Coast Guard. Although this strategies. Configurations are modular with general project did not have all of the design requirements of the volume and mass limitations of one cubic foot and 15 ParaSats, it launched SCREEM’s interest in underwater kilograms, respectively. The development time for these research. One of the major issues facing the lab systems is less than one year, and the orbital lifetime is directors was how to abstract the engineering education on the order of days or weeks. Cash equipment budgets that worked with the spacecraft development and apply it are targeted at $5,000, limited or no functionality for to underwater ROV development. Although the medium several subsystems is permitted, and permanent was completely different, the extreme nature of the attachment to spacecraft and/or rocket stages is underwater environment provided its own unique set of considered acceptable. design challenges that required an equivalent amount of analysis as the vacuum of space. The “coolness” factor also worked in the favor of the ROV, so the initial decision was to keep the development philosophy as where the ships now were. From the captain’s logs, similar as possible for both the spacecraft and there were old coordinates based on the position of underwater programs and to slowly build experience in magnetic north in 1871, so Jeremy had to perform a fair ROV development. amount of calculations to try and narrow down the search area. It was also Jeremy’s job to interface with Before initiating the development of SCREEM’s first Alaska officials to get the necessary permits and work ROV, the major questions that needed to be answered with the US Coast Guard officers during the expedition were whether undergraduate students were capable of to help place the ship in the nearest estimated location. handling the rigors of being the principal investigator on a real science mission and if the ROV design and Although the lab had limited experience in building operation were too complex for them to manage. The ROVs, it had a lot of experience in ROV maintenance, Jeremy Project, showed that undergraduates could restoration, and operation. For the Arctic mission, Deep indeed handle these tasks, and as a result, funding was Ocean Engineering (DOE) donated the use of its appropriated for the development of the new ROV, Phantom XTL (see figure 3) vehicle and Aaron Weast, a Triton, which is discussed later in the paper. Mechanical Engineering junior at SCU who led the TROV restoration project, was offered the opportunity to 2. The Jeremy Project intern at DOE and get trained as an XTL operator. This arrangement gave Aaron the skills to earn the In April 1998, SCREEM continued its quest to develop assignment of vehicle manager. As the vehicle underwater ROV experience and assess the feasibility of manager, it was Aaron’s job to ensure that the ROV abstracting the ParaSat educational model by worked properly in the Arctic, and he was responsible for developing an Arctic expedition that relied heavily on piloting the vehicle and integrating the 3D stereo camera student support. The mission was scoped to give a hardware and electrical interface for the mapping marine archaeology student and an engineering student mission. the operations experience necessary to intelligently design an ROV in the upcoming academic year. The In addition to Jeremy and Aaron, Alex Derbes, a science and engineering missions which were developed computer programming NASA intern from Case Western in cooperation with NASA, NOAA, US Coast Guard, and Reserve University in Ohio, along with advisor Jeff Ota Deep Ocean Engineering (DOE), included testing the developed the software and hardware configurations for operational usefulness of an ROV for marine capturing the necessary stereo images that would work archaeology and to test the feasibility of using Mars properly with the Mars Pathfinder stereo pipeline [5] Pathfinder 3D imaging capture system and processing developed by the Intelligent Mechanisms Group at methodology for marine research [6]. Scheduled for NASA Ames. deployment in August 1998, this expedition would test every crucial element of the SCREEM ROV program. The missions were established, the students were in Could an undergraduate student serve as a principal place, so now the big question was if they could do it. science investigator? Could an undergraduate student be the lead engineer on an underwater ROV? The Arctic Expedition

For this mission, Jeremy Bates, the SCU marine Student Science Principal Investigator–Jeremy had no archaeology student who helped initiate the TROV previous field experience in marine archaeology, so for restoration project and whose name was used for the him it was a chance to put his theoretical knowledge and project title, was offered the assignment of principal his leadership abilities to the test. For the SCREEM investigator to research the details of the 1871 New directors, this mission would answer the question of Bedford Whaling Fleet disaster and define the science whether undergraduates were capable of leading a requirements for the mission. Although it was well major scientific effort. known that 32 of the 39 ships got trapped in the ice floes off the northwest coast of Alaska and eventually sunk Due to his limited experience, Jeremy worked hard to after being crushed by the moving ice, no one knew establish ties and learn from professional archaeologists. At Santa Clara, he teamed with Professor Russell Skowronek, an anthropology professor who had a wealth of previous experience in marine archaeology. For the permit process, Jeremy along with Professor Skowronek and Dr. Phil McGillivary, science liaison for the US Coast Guard, worked with Michelle Hope of the US Department of the Interior Minerals Management Department in Anchorage to help smooth the process of being granted the first ever State of Alaska permit to search for shipwrecks in Alaskan waters. After a long period of negotiation, Jeremy and Professor Skowronek were Figure 3. Deep Ocean Engineering granted the permit, and after a summer of researching Phantom XTL Polar Star in the middle of the region of where he estimated the ships to be.

After anchoring at the spot, the team got an overview of the site and met to develop the new plan. The team decided to first image the Polar Star propellers to deliver on the mission to capture underwater stereo images and build them into the 3D meshes using the Mars Pathfinder image processing system (see figure 5). The capture system included two black-and-white Sony XC-75 cameras custom mounted on the Phantom XTL for stereo imaging. The images were captured on a PC and then transferred to a Silicon Graphics Workstation and a Macintosh Powerbook G3 (not shown) for processing and viewing.

Aaron then suggested practicing a radial search pattern Figure 4. The USCG Polar Star away from the side of the ship, so the ROV could cover the 1871 fleet, Jeremy was ready to start looking for the a larger area. This on-the-fly method of planning was shipwrecks. typical on the ship as both environmental and logistical conditions often changed daily. With the strategy agreed On the US Coast Guard Icebreaker, Polar Star (see upon, the team prepared the equipment to execute the figure 4), Jeremy assumed the lead role for the team plan. when the ship neared the estimated coordinates. With a solid summer of research to back him up, he earned the The propeller images (see figure 6) were captured with respect of the Coast Guard officers, and along with relative ease and later processed into 3D meshes that Michelle Hope, he developed a plan to find the ships. were then stitched together [7]. Then on the second Working with the US Navy Arctic Submarine Lab radial search, the team noticed some ridges on the personnel, who brought a side scan sonar to help locate normally flat, featureless Arctic Ocean floor. After Aaron the positions of the wrecks, a “high probability” scanning flew around the site, the video evidence led the team to area was established to increase the chance of a sonar believe that the features seen were in fact, man made. “hit” or indicator that there was some anomaly on the Jeremy requested that the US Coast Guard and Navy sea floor worth looking at with the ROV. This sonar SCUBA divers inspect the site, and a day after the methodology was the standard in shipwreck searches, discovery of the site, the divers confirmed that the under so much of the planning was straight forward. However, the mud covered ridges, there was a wood structure that before it could be used to do any searching, the sonar was indeed part of a ship. shorted out, and Jeremy was left with only an ROV to do the search. As a comparison, a side scan sonar can Despite his lack of experience, Jeremy’s extensive survey approximately 5 square miles in 5 hours while an research on this history and location of the site during ROV can survey less than 100 square yards in five the summer preparation combined with solid leadership hours. This major equipment failure forced Jeremy to qualities gave him the ability to not only lead the mission completely rescope the mission in less than a day. After but to make major mission changing decisions midway consulting with the team, Jeremy decided to move the through the expedition. There were many occasions of “rookie mistakes,” but what the team lacked in Mars Pathfinder 3D Visualization and Analysis Tools for Marine Research

PC SGI O 2 Genlocked Digital Mars Pathfinder Stereo Video Lines Video Stereo Pipeline Capture Board Mesh stitching software

Phantom XTL VRML Viewer Two (2) Black-and-White cameras mounted for stereo vision

Figure 5. The stereo imaging system block diagram. experience it more than compensated with youthful Much like the Jeremy Project, the hope for the program

Figure 6. The Stereo Pipeline output from a single stereo image is taken using the two- camera configuration. The model on left is viewed with texture while the model on the right is the same model rotated 90 degrees and viewed as a wireframe. enthusiasm and energy. is to inspire the students early in their college lives into The success of this mission indicated the great potential thinking about marine science and engineering and give of giving a student the opportunity to be the principal them the opportunity to work closely with people in other investigator of a major expedition. However, there were disciplines to develop a unique synergy between some big lessons learned throughout this trip that helped traditionally unconnected fields. make this a success. The first was to carefully scope the project so that it pushes the student’s ability yet is With the ROV program now building a vehicle per year, very achievable. The second was to make the project the SCREEM lab is working closely with the interesting enough to motivate the student to do the Anthropology department to establish a coordinated test, extra work necessary to help guarantee a success. development, and expedition schedule to prepare the use of the ROV for implementing new techniques and 3. Future Marine Archaeology Applications methodologies for performing marine archaeological work. The unanticipated level of success of the Jeremy Project helped establish a strong inter-disciplinary tie between TRITON the Schools of Engineering and Anthropology at Santa Clara University (SCU). Using Triton, the ROV funded The first SCREEM-built ROV, Triton (Figure 7), was by a development grant by SCU’s Technology Steering originally designed to carry a Zero Angle Photon Committee, the SCREEM lab along with an anthropology Spectrometer (ZAPS) probe designed by Oregon State professor with marine archaeology experience at SCU University to search for hydrothermal vents in Antarctica. are establishing a program to further develop the Mars The mission was titled the Oregon State Santa Clara Pathfinder 3D imaging methodology for underwater Extreme ROV (OSSCER) and is now tentatively research to map marine archaeological sites. scheduled for 2001. Working within the scientific

The intent is to demonstrate to potential marine archaeology students the new underwater research tools available to them by coordinating expeditions that perform a mission and educate the students on the capabilities of the ROV. For the engineering students, it gives them the opportunity to work with a new set of scientists as an external customer and gives them more opportunities for deployment experience with an ROV in the open water. For the SCREEM directors and affiliated researchers, it is a chance to develop new technologies and perform groundbreaking research that includes the students in the process.

Figure 7. Triton being deployed into the Monterey Bay off of the R/V Ed Ricketts. requirements given by the researchers, the vehicle was Overall, the Jeremy Project went surprisingly well. completed in June 1999. With Triton’s original mission However, the expedition did not go without its own set of now more than two years away, a full testing and problems. Costs for travelling to these extreme development program was built to support both marine destinations are prohibitively high, so funding was archaeology and marine biology research while Triton always a major issue right down to the day before we was uncommitted. During the summer of 1999, the boarded the ship. Planning specific dates to embark and vehicle was deployed in the Monterey Bay for both disembark the Polar Star was difficult due to the engineering tests and marine biological research. variance in the Arctic Ocean sea conditions, and as a Experience gained in these deployments will be heavily result, last minute travel changes added to the already used to help modify Triton to become a shallow water high cost of the mission. Although this experience was (less than 300 meters) biological and archaeological well worth the resources spent, it would be logistically research workhorse. difficult for a student-based lab to support these missions to the polar regions every year. Essentially, S.S. Pomona the project was too big in scope to be repeatable.

Triton’s first archaeological mission will be the a trial run As a result, the lab has pursued a closer relationship to in Fort Ross cove, California. This research will Monterey Bay and other local marine researchers who represent the collaborative efforts of San Jose State are only a short drive away. Both marine biologists and University, Santa Clara University, the United States archaeologists have provided Triton with funding and Coast Guard, NASA Ames Research Center, and the missions that will fulfill the requirements for both the California State Parks and Recreation. The summer SCREEM lab education and their senior design project project, focusing on the S.S. Pomona, a steamship built requirements. With the completion of Triton, the lab now in 1888 that sank in 1908, will present new has a working vehicle on which engineering students environmental challenges: surge, low visibility, and can gain experience with underwater ROV development marine plants (kelp). One of Triton’s main tests will be to and deployment issues. Working in concert with the image the ship and further develop the accuracy of the archaeology department, the SCREEM lab is planning 3D technologies mentioned previously in this paper. The subsequent projects that will attempt to design, build, long term goal will be to map the entire site, but for this and deliver an ROV and potentially an autonomous specific mission, Triton will be testing how realistic it underwater vehicle (AUV) from scratch. When this could be to capture accurate 3D images of a sunken capability is achieved, hopefully by the 1999-2000 vessel that is more intact than what the Jeremy Project school year, the goal is to standardize the education for found. both spacecraft and underwater rover development and offer a very similar design project experience in two very The engineering results from this mission will help different worlds. determine the requirements for future development of instrumentation and logistical operations for Triton as an The Jeremy project showcased many of the positive archaeological research vehicle. It is hoped that Triton aspects of hands-on science and engineering education. evolves into a versatile research platform that can be Benefits include science driven engineering, simple easily modified and deployed for any archaeological or designs allowing complete understanding of the system, biological mission that requires the vision-based 2D and rapid schedule permitting full exposure to the mission 3D imaging technology that was originally developed for lifecycle from conception to field operation, integration of the Jeremy Project. science and engineering students and departments, involvement with multiple external organizations, and the 4. Conclusion excitement of executing a novel and compelling student mission. Undergraduate students can perform ground breaking scientific and engineering research. When a project that 5. Acknowledgements involves a design that requires survival and operation in extreme environments, teams of students are easily motivated to follow the requirements-based, hands-on The authors would like to thank all of the particpating engineering educational process that the SCREEM lab is organizations and the individuals that helped make this developing. mission a success. Due to the last minute nature of the expedition, funding was always an issue and without the For the Jeremy Project, the students successfully funding support of Ray Highsmith and Geoff Wheat of delivered on every task given to them. The engineering NOAA/West Coast and Polar Regions Undersea student adapted the stereo image capture and Research Center, Phil Kesten of the Santa Clara processing system from the Mars Pathfinder mission [6], University Technology Steering Committee, Terry and with it the archaeology student found found positive Shoup, Santa Clara University School of Engineering evidence of a sunken ship near the last known location Dean, Santa Clara University Engineering Alumni Board, of the whaling fleet. This accomplishment set a Phil Ballou of Deep Ocean Engineering, Phil McGillivary precedence in being the first successful state permitted of the US Coast Guard, and Carol Stoker of NASA Ames shipwreck search and find in the history of Alaska. Research Center, this mission would not have been [6] C. Stoker, E. Zbinden, T. Blackmon, et. al., possible. “Analyzing Pathfinder Data using Virtual Reality and Super-resolved Imgaing”, Journal of Geophysical Also, we would like to thank organizations such as the Research, February 14, 1998. Intelligent Mechanisms Group at NASA Ames for providing the Mars Pathfinder stereo pipeline code and [7] A. Derbes, J. Ota, “Mars Pathfinder Robotics the engineering and software support, the US Navy Visualization Applied to Sub-marine archaeology”, In Arctic Submarine Lab for providing the use of the side Proceedings of the 1999 Underwater Invervention scan sonar, the US Park Service for funding the travel Conference, New Orleans, LA, January 1999 costs for the Navy personnel and the sonar, the Department of Minerals Management for allowing archaeologist Michelle Hope to work on the project, the state of Alaska for granting the permit to make this all possible, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute for engineering and logistical support.

6. Biography Jeff Ota is the co-director of Santa Clara University's SCREEM lab and an adjunct instructor at SCU. He works full-time as a research engineer in the Space Projects Division at the NASA Ames Research Center. His responsibilities include developing telerobotic 3D imaging systems for automated rover control and serving as the project leader in field tests and expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. Jeff has a BS in Engineering, an MS in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, and is currently a doctoral student in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford.

REFERENCES

[1] J. Ota, C. Kitts, J. Bates, A. Weast, and R. Skowronek, “The Jeremy Project: A Case Study in Undergraduate Science and Engineering Education” In Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Snowmass, CO, March, 1999

[2] M. Breiling, C. Hu, et. al, “The Artemis Project: Picosatellites and the Feasibility of the Smaller, Faster, Cheaper Approach” In Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Snowmass, CO, March, 1999

[3] A. Weast, J. Ota, C. Kitts, C. Bulich, A. Laurence, C. Lwin, T. Wigle, "Integrating Digital Stereo Cameras with Mars Pathfinder Technology for 3D Regional Mapping Underwater", In Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Snowmass, CO, March, 1999

[4] C. Kitts and J. Ota, "The ParaSat Space Flight Program", Invited for publication at the International Astronautical Federation Specialist Symposium: Novel Concepts for Smaller, Faster & Better Space Missions, Los Angeles, April 19-21, 1999.

[5] J. O’Boyle, et. al., “The Barnacle Microsatellite”, 12th AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, August 31 – September 3, 1998.