Safe WAIT and the WAITSensor

The Wide Area Ice Thickness Sensor is a remote controlled vehicle that traverses frozen lakes and streams in order to measure ice thickness as the user drives the vehicle. This ensures that there is a safe ice thickness that is designated by the user. The primary target consumers for this project are cold weather sports enthusiasts, ice fishermen, and safety personnel. This product is to have characteristics that allow it to be remotely operated, sense between 1” and 12” of ice, can be easily transported to and from operation zones, operate in sub-zero temperatures, has a battery life that will last multiple uses, report back/indicate the sensor safety readings, and be inexpensive overall.

There are currently no products meant for the commercial or residential applicants that fit these requirements. Products available are either stationary, expensive, and/or vehicle towed. The way ice thickness is measured in lieu of these expensive industrial/research applications is by physically hitting the ice with a heavy stick at range or drill into the ice for accurate measuring. The WAITS sensor will alleviate the high capacity of danger that is associated with this practice. This device will have a commercial price range for many individuals including ice fishermen, first-responder personnel, and other winter enthusiasts.

The end goal of this project is to have a danger reducing and potentially life-saving remotely operated vehicle that is inexpensive, accurate, has sub-zero applications, over one hour of battery life, portable, and easy to use device. This project’s challenges will lie in finding an accurate top-down sensor reading, battery life in sub-zero temperatures, and have proper weight and size for portability/transportation.

For an updated project description, click on the following link for the Project Readiness Package.

Project Name

Wide Area Ice Thickness Sensor

Project Number

P20321

Project Wiki

Confluence Wiki

Project Family

project family (if relevant)

Start Term

2019

End Term

2020

Faculty Guide

Charles Hacker, cjhddm@rit.edu

Primary Customer

Wayne Evans & Matt Kremers

Sponsor (financial support)

N/A

Planning & Execution

Project Photos and Videos

Imagine RIT

Gate Reviews

Problem Definition

Systems Design

Preliminary Detailed Design

Detailed Design

Build & Test Prep

Subsystem Build & Test

Integrated System Build & Test

Customer Handoff & Final Project Documentation (Verification & Validation)

PRP

Requirements

Schedule

Cost

Risk Management

Problem Management

Communication & Minutes

Use Cases

Benchmarking

Functional Decomposition

Morphological Chart

Pugh Concept Selection

BOM

Mechanical Drawings

Electrical Schematics

Software Diagrams

Facility Layout

Manuals

Mockups

Test Fixtures

Prototyping

Test Plans

Analysis Results

Simulations

Test Results

Design Review Documents

Technical Paper

Poster

Imagine RIT Exhibit