Using newton gripper to take a water sample

General Discussion
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Here’s video from last Friday’s pool test where we used a newton gripper to trigger a 5 liter watermark niskin bottle.

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Here’s how we did it. We used the gripper to squeeze a compression spring in the trigger that releases the end caps. This niskin bottle is normally is normally a hand-deployed device, and is triggered when the spring depressed by dropping a doughnut-shaped messenger weight down a rope.

One claw of the gripper went into the hole for the rope/knot of the device (not all niskin bottles have this hole) and the other went on top of the spring where the messenger weight usually drops.

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Here’s how we repositioned the gripper

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…and here is a picture of the big niskin being slung under the chassis with a pair of nylon dog collars. Their black color even gives e a matching appearance

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Very cool! What kind of work are you using this additional equipment for?

-Adam

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We’re just trying to get large enough water samples to be useful to others. The potential uses could include:

  • water chemistry/pollution checks
  • microplastics (not ideal…obviously, they’re more likely to be on the surface or bottom)
  • bacteria types at different depths
  • eDNA…hey dream big. The samples are large enough

You may have noticed at the end of the video that we’re also using the BlueROV to tow a plankton net. That could be used for plankton (obviously) or surface microplastics We’re still trying to explore the capabilities to see what the machine can be used for. I’d really like to try attaching a few types of sediment samplers to it as well to see what we can pick up…I know a microbiologist who is interested, and suspect that a few of the geologists I know might also want samples.

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The 5 liter niskin is really too large to use without adding syntactic foam. (I bought some from you folks, but haven’t used it yet.) I need to either work out a temporary way to attatch foam, or move to the smaller 2.2 liter watermark bottle.

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Hi All,

I built the BR Heavy Lift BR2 for Joey last July and he has done an excellent job of customizing it to meet his Marine Biology research requirements!

Regards,
TCIII AVd

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