Work-in-Progress: Development of a new hands-on STEM program for biologically inspired maritime robotics.

This paper documents the work-in-progress to develop a STEM outreach program providing 9th-12th grade high-school aged learners with an introduction to biologically inspired underwater robotics using lighter-than-air (LTA) vehicles. This work includes prototype kit development targeting a comparable cost per kit as SeaPerch ($179) and SeaGlide ($249) and instructional materials comprised of demonstration videos and standards-aligned written curricular content to facilitate classroom implementation. LTA vehicles are utilized specifically for their unique ability to demonstrate fundamental concepts applicable to both aircraft and underwater vehicles including structural analysis, aerodynamics and hydrodynamics, biologically inspired propulsion, systems engineering, and swarm dynamics, without requiring student access to pools or other bodies of water. Of modern naval relevance, LTA vehicles provide an opportunity to demonstrate key concepts applicable to submarine design without dependence on access to water. The Naval Research and Development Framework and corresponding Addendum speaks to the need for "[u]ndersea dominance...as the Navy designs and build the next generation of strategic and tactical submarines" including "[e]xpanded use of autonomous undersea vehicles..." [1]. Furthermore, the Addendum's Integrated Research Portfolio on Warfighter Supremacy speaks to training and education as well as development of biologically inspired autonomous systems. Current interest in biologically inspired vehicles is documented in the Navy's proposed FY22 budget [2]. Handson robotics activities using LTA platforms provide a novel opportunity to develop the future naval workforce by promoting interest and learning in underwater and unmanned systems without the need for access to a pool or lake to test in. This paper documents work-in-progress to develop a SeaPerch-inspired educational kit. The kit will include three hulls - balloons to be filled with helium in shapes that idealize the shapes of sea creatures: a hemisphere to emulate a jellyfish, an ellipsoid to emulate a tuna, and a flying wing to emulate a ray. Both propeller and flapping propulsion options will be provided to expose learners to traditionally and biologically-inspired propulsors. By using idealized geometries, fundamentals of aero/hydrodynamics like added mass effects that are often ignored because they are relatively small for aircraft but of relevance for submarines and LTA vehicles can be demonstrated. Navy supported STEM programming such as SeaPerch, and more recently SeaGlide, have been enormously successful for fostering an interest in engineering and robotics with participants in all 50 states and 35 countries with growth from 22 regional SeaPerch competitions in 2014 to 89 regional competitions in 2018 [4]. The SeaPerch kit-based structure has proven pivotal for widespread adoption, though access to water is a barrier. The described activities take a logical step in kit-based naval STEM outreach activities, without the constraint of water, and targeting high-school aged learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]