ROV Robotics

The curriculum, lesson cards, and working practices behind a MATE ROV team run as an engineering company. Sprints, pool days, design decision records, and a library of lesson cards covering water physics, electricity, control, software, and ocean science.

Contents

Start here

• The Class and the Team
• What Is a Lesson Card?
• Sprint Rhythm
• Sprint Calendar 2026-27
• Daily Rhythm
• Your Three-Week Status Report
• About Your Lesson Card Signoff Sheet
• Student Per-Sprint Deliverables Expectations

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Also Useful

• How the Studio Works
• Waterfall and Agile: Why We Use Both
• Independent Contractors
• Why This Class Runs This Way

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Please know that this is a work-in-progress. Quite a bit of it represents rough draft slop. In 2026-27, many of these will be rewritten. Some already are. If you want to make improvements, please ask your teacher; he’d appreciate it and the content is all in github.

0. Engineering Process

Card	Status	Solo?	Est.
Card 0.1: How a Socratic Seminar Works	Draft	No	1 wk
Card 0.2: Writing a Design Decision Record	Ready	Yes	1 wk
Card 0.3: Sprint Planning and Estimation	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 0.4: Score Autopsy, Reading a MATE Scoresheet	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 0.5: BOMs and Purchase Requests	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 0.6: Running a Standup	Draft	No	1 wk
Card 0.7: Reading a SID	Draft	Yes	1 wk

1. Water Physics

Card	Status	Solo?	Est.
Card 1.1: Archimedes and Buoyancy	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 1.2: Pressure vs. Depth	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 1.3: Buoyancy Control and the Argo Mechanism	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 1.4: Drag, Thrust, and Hull Shape	Draft	Yes	1 wk

2. Electricity and Fabrication

Card	Status	Solo?	Est.
Card 2.1: Ohm's Law	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 2.2: Power, Fuse Sizing, and Electrical Safety	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 2.3: Wire Prep, Splicing, and Waterproofing	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 2.4: Penetrators and Enclosure Sealing	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 2.5: Series, Parallel, and Tether Voltage Drop	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 2.6: Conductivity and Corrosion	Draft	Yes	2 wk
Card 2.7: Connection Autopsy (Failure Modes)	Draft	Yes	1 wk

3. Control and Actuation

Card	Status	Solo?	Est.
Card 3.1: PWM	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 3.2: ESCs and Brushless Motors	Draft	No	1 wk
Card 3.3: Servos and Steppers (Choosing an Actuator)	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 3.4: Ethernet and ROV Networking	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 3.5: Feedback Control and PID	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 3.6: Joystick Mapping	Draft	No	1 wk
Card 3.7: Sensors and Unit Conversion	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 3.8: Cameras, Analog vs. USB	Draft	Yes	1 wk

4. Software

Card	Status	Solo?	Est.
Card 4.1: The Terminal and SSH	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 4.3: Data Logging	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 4.4: Plotting with matplotlib	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 4.5: State Machines	Draft	Yes	1 wk

5. Mission Science and Safety

Card	Status	Solo?	Est.
Card 5.1: Safety Culture and the JSA	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 5.2: Pool Deck Protocol and the Launch Checklist	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 5.3: Seabed 2030, Why Map the Ocean	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 5.4: The Argo Program	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 5.5: Monterey Bay, Our Sanctuary	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 5.6: Coral Restoration (2026 Mission Context)	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 5.7: The Deep-Sea Mining Debate	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 5.8: Ocean Acidification	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 5.9: Ghost Gear and Ocean Plastics	Draft	Yes	1 wk
Card 5.10: The Blue Economy, Who Does This for a Living	Draft	Yes	1 wk

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What’s still in progress