"Robotic Team" to Compete in US Navy's Competition in Alexandria University

By Salma Yassin

CAIRO, Feb 14 (SEE)-A successful story , brilliant minds and amazing idea has been invented by some students of Faculty of Engineering at Alexandria University with the cooperation of other school students.

They all gathered under the umbrella of “Robotic team” and invented an automatic submarine to be used under water.

The invented submarine can be controlled by a remote control and perform various tasks can’t be done by humans in the deep sea.

They called it "Megadalon submarine" as they thought “Megadalon”; which is an extinct shark’s name, will suit its work under water.

It can be used to provide internet connection and in other military purposes to fight piracy, terrorism and contribute to securing countries.

Also, it can change and replace damaged tubes and pipes under water besides moving them in any direction with its hands fixed inside.

As it’s equipped with lambs, the submarine can be used to detect wreckages under water even in completely dark regions.

Water couldn’t spoil cables and wires inside it's body as they are well isolated to work efficiently under high water pressure.

A team formed from 27 students was working around the clock and conducted so many researches to finally come up with this invention.

Some of team’s members are affiliated to "Explorers" team at Faculty of Engineering and others are in "Rangers" team formed from students in Alexandria's high schools.

They clarified that research teams appeared recently in Alexandria University aim at converting academic studies and theories to real implementation on ground.

This reason drove professors and students in faculty of engineering to cooperate and form specified teams for that purpose.

Teams are formed from students in different sections like mechanics and electricity. Also, school students have been trained in order to be active members.

On his part, a professor in faculty of engineering is responsible for organizing the team's work and issuing all permits needed.

Team members pointed out that outside Egypt such submarines may cost 20,000 dollars but they managed to construct it by only 1000 dollars.

The fund was collected from members’ personal expenses in addition to some contributions from the university, civil society, companies and banks.

They stressed that their design this year is more developed than other one made last year by some team’s members who faced some technical issues.

“The final submarine design solved all problems that appeared previously like those related to electricity codes," said by members.

They added, "this attained after intensive search in applications related to companies specified in exploration under water”.

Regarding challenges faced by the team, they had to work during their summer vacation from 10 am till 10 pm.

Also, choosing suitable pools for practical trials required issuing many permits and that took a lot of time.

In the same context, some members had to stay in places with swimming pools for days and others stayed there for a week to fix codes and modify insulation methods of submarine's contents.

In the meantime, team members are working on the submarine's final design along with preparing information to be displayed in coming conferences and scientific research periodicals.

They are looking forward to achieving technological leadership in domestic contest to be held in Egypt in February beside other region-wide competition scheduled to launch in April.

Their ultimate goal is to be the main producer of this submarine type; which is expensive to be bought or rented by companies.

Also, construction of specific production lines is embedded in the team's tasks’ list.

On the other hand, the team is currently working on another automatic submarine with special specifications, as per a Kuwaiti company’s request.

Regarding achievements in previous years, they pointed out that they participated in an annual competition organized by Us navy in 2016.

Since this year, new members have been joining the competition, and Us navy is finally dealing with the team as a company having a product.

Winning this contest means the team is obligated to produce other versions of product to be sold in markets.

This annual contest was first launched in 2007 but started in Egypt in 2012.

First generation participated in this contest is in contact with new generations via a face book page established to exchange experiences.

They confirmed some of their fellows in secondary and preparatory schools achieved high scores in Us Navy’s contest over the past three years and other researchers were chosen to work at international companies specified in exploration under water.