starting a build for a robotic dredger

[Fermion]

Hi guys,

I am an electrical engineer with a hobby of mechanical engineering. My wife is a software engineer who does most of the microcontroller programming and UI in our past projects.

We have been interested in gold prospecting just for fun for several years, and watching Bering Sea Gold has us thinking of merging some of our past robotic projects with the idea of gold dredging.

It is somewhat hard to calculate if this is a viable project. The fun factor would convince me to build it if I have a chance of at least recouping materials costs. I already have a very large cnc bedmill and lathe in my shop, plus plenty of electronic test equipment.

The robot would allow the dredge hose (considering a 6 inch hose) to be remotely operated underwater with several cameras and lighting to give feedback to the user on the surface. Ideally it would be very suited for dredging under the ice as the entrance hole would not need to be much larger than 12 inches and possibly could be made with an auger. This would save time when spot checking several sites. All of the exposed parts of the robotic section would be made of stainless, delrin and rubber.

I intend for the robot to be controlled by a human but will have some canned sweep programs to allow it to run semi-autonomously. It should be able to grasp or nudge boulders up to about 300 pounds.

One of the sticking points is actuators. I am unsure right now what would be the best choice. I have considered hydraulic, pneumatic, hydraulic using pneumatic cylinders, and electro-mechanical (ballscrew/servomotor) actuators. It might be best to proceed on this project by developing the actuator and cycling it under load at depth pressure in salt water for several hundred hours to make sure it is robust. Once the actuator is proven, the rest of the robot is somewhat trivial as is the programming.

Anyway, if you have any ideas or suggestions as to approaching this project, I would be happy to hear them.

 

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[AK_Au_Diver]

How's the ol robotic dredge coming along nearly 2 years later...

Yeah, I had the same thought, I have not seen it show up in Nome yet. It would be nice to get another rov mining machine up here. We are the only ones, and are now in our tenth year mining with it. Although about a dozen other diver-less suction dredges have gotten wet, most never came back after only doing a partial season, or were converted into diver dredges.

I don't know how I missed this thread when it was fresh. Like everyone else said, it would be a great help to anyone designing anything to first get some hands-on experience with the problem you are trying to solve.

 

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[Sick4gold]

My thoughts were that any legitimate person probably wouldn't show up on a random Internet forum asking stupid questions. Instead if he had a honest revolutionary design would be able to get funding or an agreement with a reputable company for testing and product development. Another red flag for me was that he had hardly any knowledge of how a dredge nozzle runs underwater.
I call these people "flashes in the pan" as they pop up and bang and then they are gone.
I respect ideas and creativity and have found this forum to be full of experienced people with some amazing builds but most seem to have a grasp on the field they are trying to revolutionize.
I'm all for reinventing the wheel as progress is only possible with people willing to take risks but I got the eyes rolling pretty far back in my head after reading his first post.
I'll venture a guess that plenty more people thought the same thing " yeah right" but didn't want to say anything for the sake of being nice.