When I was four I modeled for a book.  You know those progressive, interactive books for kids?  I posed for the back cover of My Little Blue Robot.  My friend Max and I stood in a hot studio for a few hours playing with this little cardboard robot.  Each page of the book contains a piece and the idea is to put the robot together as you go through the book.

Ever since then I’ve been fond of these little mechanical things.  They’re fun, easy, and don’t (usually) talk back to you.  It’s nice.  And personally, I like to make things in my free time so robotics seemed like an interesting subject.

The summer of 2009, I took R.O.V. at CIMI.  The class description said we could build underwater robots and I decided to try it.  Having no idea what I was getting into, I entered the course completely out of my element and loved it.

R.O.V. stands for Remotely Operated Vehicle.  We made simple ones at Sea Camp and the controls were already wired and ready for us.   All we had to do was make the frame out of PVC pipe and zip tie it together.

I decided to make one for my 8th grade science project.  Not so much for the science part, but just because it was fun to build.  My dad and I measured and cut all the pipe, laid out the dimensions, and glued each piece together.

We gathered a mountain of materials; zip ties, PVC pipe, drills, film canisters, propellers, a control box, piano wire, electrical wire,toggle switches, batteries, glue, scissors, a car battery, wax, wire cutters, wire strippers, screw drivers, rubber bands, an old razor phone, plastic zip lock bags, and food (of course).

This was our work table:

It ended up looking like this:

The wiring was trickier.  I had to individually cut and strip each wire and secure it to the tiny motors.  We used empty film canisters to house and waterproof the motors and sealed them.  The other end of the wires were attached to batteries, put inside a black plastic control box.  Toggle switches were then installed on the box to become the steering system.

After all the mechanics were finished we attached propellers to the motors and got ready to put Baby ROVer in the water.  The finished product wasn’t sleek and gorgeous.  But then again, it was never meant to be.  I liked the way it looked.  It was cute and dorky looking and appeared very…homemade to me.

We tested it in our friends’ pool.  They had a battery-powered, plastic fish floating around in it. My favorite part of the whole process was making Baby ROVer chase after the fish.  We even attached the razor to the robot so we could film what it looked like underwater.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH BABY ROVER CATCH A FISH!