My SeaPerch Summer
By Logan Caramanna, West Tisbury – Martha’s Vineyard, MA

Last summer when I was 10 years old, I borrowed a SeaPerch kit and tool bag from Cape Cod Community College. I found out that the STEM Lending Library at the College had SeaPerch kits and thought it would be a fun summer project because robotics is something I like to do.

I worked on the build for 4 or 5 days for a few hours each day. I followed the instructions in the online manual. My dad cut some plastic pipes to the size I needed for the project, but I did everything else myself including all the soldering and assembly.

What did you learn while building your SeaPerch?
I learned about the interesting mechanisms that make an underwater robot work. It was interesting to find out about how Remote Operated Vehicles (ROV) work, how to drive them, and what they’re used for in commercial operations.

I learned how to balance an ROV correctly and how to move buoyancy devices to balance the ROV. In the SeaPerch manual, I read about how to balance the ROV in three different types of water – saltwater, brackish water, and freshwater.

Was there anything tricky while building the robot? What was the hardest part of the build?
Waxing the motors was probably the hardest part because the wax got all over my hands. Also, it was hard to seal the container.

What was the most fun part of the project?
The most fun part was seeing the SeaPerch that I built work for the first time. I first tested it in my bathtub! Later, I had the opportunity to test it at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Environmental Systems Laboratory tank.

What was it like testing your robot in the pool at WHOI?
The pool is extremely deep. It was very fun testing it because there were two divers in the pool at the same time. The divers were testing their diving suits. I attached a GoPro Hero 7 to the SeaPerch and took video footage to see the tank from the perspective of the robot. It was hard at first to maneuver it, but then it got easier as I learned how to use the controller. It wasn’t intuitive to figure out which direction to go initially, but once I got past that little hurdle, then it made sense.

Now that you’ve built your SeaPerch robot, what other STEM projects would you like to try next?
I would really like to participate in the International SeaPerch Challenge competitively, but there aren’t any teams where I live. Hopefully I can find a team to join because I’d really like to do that. I’m also interested in participating in FRC (FIRST Robotics Challenge) but I can’t do that until I’m in high school because of the age requirement.

If you could design your own underwater robot, what would you want it to do?
If I could design my own underwater robot, I would want it to be able to take videos. I would enable it to grab things underwater with arms, and to be able to move fast underwater so that I can use it for search and rescue operations. I’d also want it to be able to connect to the internet to provide a live feed, which could be used to remotely drive it.

I would design the robot so that it would be able to generate electricity from the water to create a new alternative energy source. The electricity would power the robot and when it surfaces, it would send its excess energy to the grid.

Thank you to Logan for documenting and sharing his SeaPerch journey with us! From building and soldering to testing his ROV at WHOI, Logan’s project highlights the value of hands-on STEM learning opportunities on the Cape & the Islands. We encourage students, teachers, and community members to borrow resources from the STEM Lending Library, explore new projects, make new discoveries, and share their STEM stories with the broader community.

From left to right: Logan launching his SeaPerch ROV in the WHOI Environmental Systems Lab tank; the SeaPerch underwater with a mounted GoPro Hero 7 camera capturing footage; and video of the SeaPerch in action with a WHOI diver in the background. A successful build! (Credits: Logan Caramanna)