Submarine Systems
Central Michigan University had purchased a submarine named the “Amik Dodem”. This submarine was purchased to assist Central Michigan Universities Institute for Great Lakes Research. It had a few problems though, there was no communication system for the submarine crew to speak with their support vessel and there was no oxygen system for extended dive. My group was given the opportunity to show our engineering talent by solving these problems.
Demonstration Video
Communications System
We had several different solutions we considered when tackling the communications system but none of them were as widely used and tested as an acoustic communications system.
These systems utilize acoustic equipment to send and receive voice communications through Single-sideband modulation.
These devices can be purchased off the shelf from suppliers for divers. We decided to purchase Ocean Technoology Systems (OTS) equipment and modify them as necessary for the submarine.
Oxygen System
The only practical solution for out group was to utilize oxygen filled bottles to slowly bleed pure O2 into the cabin. The CO2 is removed by scrubbers on the inside of the sub.
The system provides 7 hours of mission length and 72 hours of emergency oxygen, for a total of 79 hours. This is a purely mechanical system and will operate without electricity and only requires the crew to control the valves on the inside.
Mounting Solutions
The equipment we purchased for our systems needed custom fabricated mounts because there are no commercial solutions for this custom hardware.
The communications system needed a single mount for the acoustic transducer. I took the liberty of designing and constructing this mount out of angled steel to keep the design simple and effective.
We would have preferred to weld the mount to the hull but we were restricted by the faculty of the school. Everything we did to the sub had to be reversible or removable, and this mount perfectly matched that requirement.