Tampa Deep Sea Xplorers - XPRIZE

General Discussion
1

Hello Rusty and gang at Blue Robotics,

Well the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE is over and our team, Tampa Deep Sea Xplorers
was awarded “Runner Up” in the NOAA Bonus Prize portion of the competition!
I wanted to thank you Rusty for your help and encouragement along the way. I also wanted to
point out that our entry in the NOAA challenge used Blue Robotics end caps, thru hull connectors, and motor props (just the props we used a modified hobby motor).

Although we didn’t win the top prize, my team and I are very pleased with the outcome.
I’ve posted a link to a nice article about the winning entries.

Ed Larson
Tampa Deep Sea Xplorers

7 Likes
2

Congratulations, Ed! That’s an amazing accomplishment and we’re very proud that you used some of our stuff!

3

Hi Ed!

Congrats! That’s awesome. We’re all so stoked to hear :smile: Do you have any photos of the vehicle and/or your team? We’d love to share!

4

Hey Elisa,

Yes, we have a couple pretty good shots of us in Puerto Rico for the NOAA challenge.

I’ll send them to you tomorrow.

Thanks

Ed Larson

TDSX

5

Thanks, Ed! The photos are sweet!

6

Congratulations, very cool! Do you have any write-up of your vehicle and approach to the NOAA challenge?

7

Here is a brief description.

Our vehicle has 4 fins near the back and each one has a fluorometer of our own design.

The four sensors are in a top, bottom, right, left configuration. As the vehicle moves through

the water the sensors are sampled about once per second and the readings are compared

with each other and that gives us an angle to turn to for the strongest signal. So, the

vehicle basically acts like a guided missile and follows the dye plume like a smoke trail.

1 Like
8

Looks sharp!
I’ll be looking forward to dive videos.

Berny Shomstein