Hardware
Going Mobile Down By The Bay
I remember being in high school and being totally envious of smart kids like those from Amador Valley High School. They have formed a Robotics club to work on autonomous undersea vehicles, competing ( and placing!) against the likes of large universities from India, Japan, and the US. How cool is that!
Powering their sub is an OQO Model 01, which according to the team helps keep the sub compact. They control the OQO wirelessly through Remote Desktop.
We use the OQO as the main computer of our sub. The ability to run Windows XP has allowed us to focus less on drivers and the mechanics of image processing, and more on the actual implementation. The OQO has also enabled us to take advantage of Windows’ Remote Desktop technology, making wireless debugging a simple task. The use of the OQO has also enabled us to miniaturize the sub, as it occupies a far smaller space than other, larger computers. OQO has provided us with countless hours of technical support, and several backup batteries which have been instrumental in our submarine, running the high-level mission control and image processing tasks.
