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
jota@scudc.scu.edu
Abstract - In August 1998, Santa Clara University (SCU)
conducted a marine archeological expedition off the
coast of Alaska with the use of a modified Deep Ocean
Engineering Phantom XTL underwater remotely
operated vehicle (ROV). Conducted jointly with NASA,
NOAA, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Department of Interior,
and the U.S. Navy Arctic Submarine Research Lab, the
mission goals were to locate a lost whaling fleet that
sank near Barrow, Alaska in 1871 and to test NASA’s
underwater 3D mapping technology. Using the stereo
image capture and processing system adopted from the
Mars Pathfinder mission, the expedition team found
positive evidence of a sunken ship near the last known
location of the whaling fleet. This accomplishment set a
precedence in being the first successful state permitted
shipwreck search in the history of Alaska. Named "The
Jeremy Project" after the name of the principal student
investigator, this project showcases many of the positive
aspects of hands-on underwater science and
engineering education. Benefits include science driven
engineering, simple designs allowing complete
understanding of the system, rapid schedule permitting
full exposure to the mission lifecycle from conception to
field operation, integration of science and engineering
students and departments, involvement with multiple
external organizations, and the excitement of executing
a novel and compelling student mission.
This paper reports on the mission and accomplishments
of The Jeremy Project as well as the technical systems
used in its execution. Finally, the future plans of
applying the technology to marine archaeology will be
discussed as part of an ongoing program in studentdriven underwater research.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Jeremy Project
3. Future Marine Archaeology Applications
4. Conclusion
5. Acknowledgements
6. Biographies
1. Introduction
Founded in 1998, the Santa Clara Remote Extreme
Environment Mechanisms (SCREEM) Laboratory
conducts world-class education and research in the
development of advanced mission systems capable of
operating in remote and extreme environments.
SCREEM conducts a variety of yearly projects involving
the complete development of robotic vehicles such as
spacecraft and underwater rovers.
Students then
operate these systems during applied missions or
expeditions in order to perform scientific studies, to
validate advanced technology, and/or to provide
educational services. These project-based activities are
developed by the SCREEM lab directors to be
achievable
by
small
teams
of
senior-level
undergraduates, are student managed and engineered,
require the integration of knowledge across a variety of
disciplines, and involve development activities across all
lifecycle phases. [1]
Educational Objectives
Traditional engineering education programs typically
focus on analyzing and optimizing designs with respect
to a specific discipline. Those programs that do engage
in system-level design often limit their scope to the
conceptual design phase.
The SCREEM lab's program takes the next step by
developing systems through all lifecycle phases; this
includes
conceptual
design,
detailed
analysis,
prototyping, fabrication, integration, test, and field
operation. This broadened scope provides a richer and
more realistic experience for students and holds them
accountable for the decisions made in the conceptual
design phase. Furthermore, the developed systems
have a level of complexity that require expertise and
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).
structural design, thermal analysis, embedded systems,
communications, dynamics and control. Finally, these
projects are managed and engineered by students; not
only must they justify and engineer their systems, but
they must also manage the tasks and resources required
to support the project.
This approach requires several strategies to properly
scope the projects and to provide meaningful
educational experiences. Simplicity allows all involved
students to understand the overall system and permits
timely completion. Early prototyping serves to explore
the design problem and to allow the team to gain a
sense of its own capabilities. Low-cost albeit often risky
approaches permit the projects to be completed within
the available monetary resources. And the use of formal
managerial and design methods both serve to teach
these techniques as well as to add a conceptual
structure to the project.
In order to develop this
educational strategy, the SCREEM lab has instituted two
programs to incorporate these principles into both
spacecraft and underwater ROV projects.
The ParaSat Spacecraft Program
SCREEM’s spacecraft program has the goal of
producing student managed and engineered spacecraft
that contribute to the educational experience while also
providing a platform capable of supporting inexpensive
albeit risky space experiments [4]. Named the ParaSat
space flight program, this initiative relies heavily on the
use of corporate donations, reengineered commercial off
the
shelf
(COTS)
equipment,
HAM
radio
communications, battery power, and simple operational
strategies. Configurations are modular with general
volume and mass limitations of one cubic foot and 15
kilograms, respectively. The development time for these
systems is less than one year, and the orbital lifetime is
on the order of days or weeks. Cash equipment budgets
are targeted at $5,000, limited or no functionality for
several subsystems is permitted, and permanent
attachment to spacecraft and/or rocket stages is
considered acceptable.
Figure 2. The Artemis picosatellite
The first ParaSat spacecraft, named Barnacle, is
currently being prepared for launch on board an
experimental sounding rocket in late 1999 [5]; a second
version of this same design is also being considered for
an orbital launch in early 2000. See figures 1 a) and b),
respectively. Barnacle’s missions include characterizing
experimental sensors and validating the space operation
of a new low cost spacecraft computer. Barnacle was
developed in less than one year, involved six
undergraduate engineering students, and required a
cash budget of less than $7,500.
The second ParaSat spacecraft is a hockey puck-sized
picosatellite [2] (see figure 2) that was built by Artemis, a
team of six female engineers. The project is part of
Stanford University’s Orbiting Picosatellite Automated
Launcher (OPAL) spacecraft and has been delivered for
a launch in September 1999. The Artemis picosatellite
missions include testing the feasibility of the picosatellite
concept and conducting a science experiment using
multiple picosatellites to research the effects of lightning
on the outer ionosphere. Much like Barnacle, Artemis
was developed and delivered in less than one year and
will also be required to keep a cash budget of less than
$7,500.
Underwater Rover Program
SCREEM’s underwater rover program commenced in
early 1998 with a student team refurbishing and
operating NASA’s TROV (Telepresence Remotely
Operated Vehicle) underwater rover as a demonstration
for the Arctic and Antarctic Access Workshop hosted by
NASA, NOAA, and the US Coast Guard. Although this
project did not have all of the design requirements of the
ParaSats, it launched SCREEM’s interest in underwater
research. One of the major issues facing the lab
directors was how to abstract the engineering education
that worked with the spacecraft development and apply it
to underwater ROV development. Although the medium
was completely different, the extreme nature of the
underwater environment provided its own unique set of
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
similar as possible for both the spacecraft and
underwater programs and to slowly build experience in
ROV development.
Before initiating the development of SCREEM’s first
ROV, the major questions that needed to be answered
were whether undergraduate students were capable of
handling the rigors of being the principal investigator on
a real science mission and if the ROV design and
operation were too complex for them to manage. The
Jeremy Project, showed that undergraduates could
indeed handle these tasks, and as a result, funding was
appropriated for the development of the new ROV,
Triton, which is discussed later in the paper.
2. The Jeremy Project
In April 1998, SCREEM continued its quest to develop
underwater ROV experience and assess the feasibility of
abstracting the ParaSat educational model by
developing an Arctic expedition that relied heavily on
student support. The mission was scoped to give a
marine archaeology student and an engineering student
the operations experience necessary to intelligently
design an ROV in the upcoming academic year. The
science and engineering missions which were developed
in cooperation with NASA, NOAA, US Coast Guard, and
Deep Ocean Engineering (DOE), included testing the
operational usefulness of an ROV for marine
archaeology and to test the feasibility of using Mars
Pathfinder 3D imaging capture system and processing
methodology for marine research [6]. Scheduled for
deployment in August 1998, this expedition would test
every crucial element of the SCREEM ROV program.
Could an undergraduate student serve as a principal
science investigator? Could an undergraduate student
be the lead engineer on an underwater ROV?
For this mission, Jeremy Bates, the SCU marine
archaeology student who helped initiate the TROV
restoration project and whose name was used for the
project title, was offered the assignment of principal
investigator to research the details of the 1871 New
Bedford Whaling Fleet disaster and define the science
requirements for the mission. Although it was well
known that 32 of the 39 ships got trapped in the ice floes
off the northwest coast of Alaska and eventually sunk
after being crushed by the moving ice, no one knew
Figure 3. Deep Ocean Engineering
Phantom XTL
where the ships now were. From the captain’s logs,
there were old coordinates based on the position of
magnetic north in 1871, so Jeremy had to perform a fair
amount of calculations to try and narrow down the
search area. It was also Jeremy’s job to interface with
Alaska officials to get the necessary permits and work
with the US Coast Guard officers during the expedition
to help place the ship in the nearest estimated location.
Although the lab had limited experience in building
ROVs, it had a lot of experience in ROV maintenance,
restoration, and operation. For the Arctic mission, Deep
Ocean Engineering (DOE) donated the use of its
Phantom XTL (see figure 3) vehicle and Aaron Weast, a
Mechanical Engineering junior at SCU who led the
TROV restoration project, was offered the opportunity to
intern at DOE and get trained as an XTL operator. This
arrangement gave Aaron the skills to earn the
assignment of vehicle manager.
As the vehicle
manager, it was Aaron’s job to ensure that the ROV
worked properly in the Arctic, and he was responsible for
piloting the vehicle and integrating the 3D stereo camera
hardware and electrical interface for the mapping
mission.
In addition to Jeremy and Aaron, Alex Derbes, a
computer programming NASA intern from Case Western
Reserve University in Ohio, along with advisor Jeff Ota
developed the software and hardware configurations for
capturing the necessary stereo images that would work
properly with the Mars Pathfinder stereo pipeline [5]
developed by the Intelligent Mechanisms Group at
NASA Ames.
The missions were established, the students were in
place, so now the big question was if they could do it.
The Arctic Expedition
Student Science Principal Investigator–Jeremy had no
previous field experience in marine archaeology, so for
him it was a chance to put his theoretical knowledge and
his leadership abilities to the test. For the SCREEM
directors, this mission would answer the question of
whether undergraduates were capable of leading a
major scientific effort.
Due to his limited experience, Jeremy worked hard to
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
granted the permit, and after a summer of researching
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.
Figure 4. The USCG Polar Star
the 1871 fleet, Jeremy was ready to start looking for the
shipwrecks.
On the US Coast Guard Icebreaker, Polar Star (see
figure 4), Jeremy assumed the lead role for the team
when the ship neared the estimated coordinates. With a
solid summer of research to back him up, he earned the
respect of the Coast Guard officers, and along with
Michelle Hope, he developed a plan to find the ships.
Working with the US Navy Arctic Submarine Lab
personnel, who brought a side scan sonar to help locate
the positions of the wrecks, a “high probability” scanning
area was established to increase the chance of a sonar
“hit” or indicator that there was some anomaly on the
sea floor worth looking at with the ROV. This sonar
methodology was the standard in shipwreck searches,
so much of the planning was straight forward. However,
before it could be used to do any searching, the sonar
shorted out, and Jeremy was left with only an ROV to do
the search. As a comparison, a side scan sonar can
survey approximately 5 square miles in 5 hours while an
ROV can survey less than 100 square yards in five
hours. This major equipment failure forced Jeremy to
completely rescope the mission in less than a day. After
consulting with the team, Jeremy decided to move the
Polar Star in the middle of the region of where he
Aaron then suggested practicing a radial search pattern
away from the side of the ship, so the ROV could cover
a larger area. This on-the-fly method of planning was
typical on the ship as both environmental and logistical
conditions often changed daily. With the strategy agreed
upon, the team prepared the equipment to execute the
plan.
The propeller images (see figure 6) were captured with
relative ease and later processed into 3D meshes that
were then stitched together [7]. Then on the second
radial search, the team noticed some ridges on the
normally flat, featureless Arctic Ocean floor. After Aaron
flew around the site, the video evidence led the team to
believe that the features seen were in fact, man made.
Jeremy requested that the US Coast Guard and Navy
SCUBA divers inspect the site, and a day after the
discovery of the site, the divers confirmed that the under
the mud covered ridges, there was a wood structure that
was indeed part of a ship.
Despite his lack of experience, Jeremy’s extensive
research on this history and location of the site during
the summer preparation combined with solid leadership
qualities gave him the ability to not only lead the mission
but to make major mission changing decisions midway
through the expedition. There were many occasions of
“rookie mistakes,” but what the team lacked in
experience it more than compensated with youthful
enthusiasm and energy.
Mars Pathfinder 3 D Visua lization an d Ana lysis Tools for Marine Research
Genloc ked
Stereo Video Lines
PC
SGI O 2
Dig i tal
Vide o
Capture
Board
Mars Pathfin der
Stereo Pipeline
Phanto m XTL
Tw o (2) Black -and-Whi te
cam eras m ounte d for
ste reo visi on
Figure 5. The stereo imaging system block diagram.
Mesh stitch in g
software
VRML Viewer
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.
The success of this mission indicated the great potential
of giving a student the opportunity to be the principal
investigator of a major expedition. However, there were
some big lessons learned throughout this trip that helped
make this a success. The first was to carefully scope
the project so that it pushes the student’s ability yet is
very achievable. The second was to make the project
interesting enough to motivate the student to do the
extra work necessary to help guarantee a success.
3. Future Marine Archaeology Applications
The unanticipated level of success of the Jeremy Project
helped establish a strong inter-disciplinary tie between
the Schools of Engineering and Anthropology at Santa
Clara University (SCU). Using Triton, the ROV funded
by a development grant by SCU’s Technology Steering
Committee, the SCREEM lab along with an anthropology
professor with marine archaeology experience at SCU
are establishing a program to further develop the Mars
Pathfinder 3D imaging methodology for underwater
research to map marine archaeological sites.
them the opportunity to work closely with people in other
disciplines to develop a unique synergy between
traditionally unconnected fields.
With the ROV program now building a vehicle per year,
the SCREEM lab is working closely with the
Anthropology department to establish a coordinated test,
development, and expedition schedule to prepare the
use of the ROV for implementing new techniques and
methodologies for performing marine archaeological
work.
TRITON
The first SCREEM-built ROV, Triton (Figure 7), was
originally designed to carry a Zero Angle Photon
Spectrometer (ZAPS) probe designed by Oregon State
University to search for hydrothermal vents in Antarctica.
The mission was titled the Oregon State Santa Clara
Extreme ROV (OSSCER) and is now tentatively
scheduled for 2001.
Working within the scientific
requirements given by the researchers, the vehicle was
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.
Much like the Jeremy Project, the hope for the program
is to inspire the students early in their college lives into
thinking about marine science and engineering and give
Figure 7. Triton being deployed into the Monterey
Bay off of the R/V Ed Ricketts.
completed in June 1999. With Triton’s original mission
now more than two years away, a full testing and
development program was built to support both marine
archaeology and marine biology research while Triton
was uncommitted. During the summer of 1999, the
vehicle was deployed in the Monterey Bay for both
engineering tests and marine biological research.
Experience gained in these deployments will be heavily
used to help modify Triton to become a shallow water
(less than 300 meters) biological and archaeological
research workhorse.
S.S. Pomona
Triton’s first archaeological mission will be the a trial run
in Fort Ross cove, California. This research will
represent the collaborative efforts of San Jose State
University, Santa Clara University, the United States
Coast Guard, NASA Ames Research Center, and the
California State Parks and Recreation. The summer
project, focusing on the S.S. Pomona, a steamship built
in 1888 that sank in 1908, will present new
environmental challenges: surge, low visibility, and
marine plants (kelp). One of Triton’s main tests will be to
image the ship and further develop the accuracy of the
3D technologies mentioned previously in this paper. The
long term goal will be to map the entire site, but for this
specific mission, Triton will be testing how realistic it
could be to capture accurate 3D images of a sunken
vessel that is more intact than what the Jeremy Project
found.
The engineering results from this mission will help
determine the requirements for future development of
instrumentation and logistical operations for Triton as an
archaeological research vehicle. It is hoped that Triton
evolves into a versatile research platform that can be
easily modified and deployed for any archaeological or
biological mission that requires the vision-based 2D and
3D imaging technology that was originally developed for
the Jeremy Project.
4. Conclusion
Undergraduate students can perform ground breaking
scientific and engineering research. When a project that
involves a design that requires survival and operation in
extreme environments, teams of students are easily
motivated to follow the requirements-based, hands-on
engineering educational process that the SCREEM lab is
developing.
For the Jeremy Project, the students successfully
delivered on every task given to them. The engineering
student adapted the stereo image capture and
processing system from the Mars Pathfinder mission [6],
and with it the archaeology student found found positive
evidence of a sunken ship near the last known location
of the whaling fleet.
This accomplishment set a
precedence in being the first successful state permitted
shipwreck search and find in the history of Alaska.
Overall, the Jeremy Project went surprisingly well.
However, the expedition did not go without its own set of
problems.
Costs for travelling to these extreme
destinations are prohibitively high, so funding was
always a major issue right down to the day before we
boarded the ship. Planning specific dates to embark and
disembark the Polar Star was difficult due to the
variance in the Arctic Ocean sea conditions, and as a
result, last minute travel changes added to the already
high cost of the mission. Although this experience was
well worth the resources spent, it would be logistically
difficult for a student-based lab to support these
missions to the polar regions every year. Essentially,
the project was too big in scope to be repeatable.
As a result, the lab has pursued a closer relationship to
Monterey Bay and other local marine researchers who
are only a short drive away. Both marine biologists and
archaeologists have provided Triton with funding and
missions that will fulfill the requirements for both the
SCREEM lab education and their senior design project
requirements. With the completion of Triton, the lab now
has a working vehicle on which engineering students
can gain experience with underwater ROV development
and deployment issues. Working in concert with the
archaeology department, the SCREEM lab is planning
subsequent projects that will attempt to design, build,
and deliver an ROV and potentially an autonomous
underwater vehicle (AUV) from scratch. When this
capability is achieved, hopefully by the 1999-2000
school year, the goal is to standardize the education for
both spacecraft and underwater rover development and
offer a very similar design project experience in two very
different worlds.
The Jeremy project showcased many of the positive
aspects of hands-on science and engineering education.
Benefits include science driven engineering, simple
designs allowing complete understanding of the system,
rapid schedule permitting full exposure to the mission
lifecycle from conception to field operation, integration of
science and engineering students and departments,
involvement with multiple external organizations, and the
excitement of executing a novel and compelling student
mission.
5. Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all of the particpating
organizations and the individuals that helped make this
mission a success. Due to the last minute nature of the
expedition, funding was always an issue and without the
funding support of Ray Highsmith and Geoff Wheat of
NOAA/West Coast and Polar Regions Undersea
Research Center, Phil Kesten of the Santa Clara
University Technology Steering Committee, Terry
Shoup, Santa Clara University School of Engineering
Dean, Santa Clara University Engineering Alumni Board,
Phil Ballou of Deep Ocean Engineering, Phil McGillivary
of the US Coast Guard, and Carol Stoker of NASA Ames
Research Center, this mission would not have been
possible.
Also, we would like to thank organizations such as the
Intelligent Mechanisms Group at NASA Ames for
providing the Mars Pathfinder stereo pipeline code and
the engineering and software support, the US Navy
Arctic Submarine Lab for providing the use of the side
scan sonar, the US Park Service for funding the travel
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.
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