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16 October 2008 - An Electronic Dive Buddy built by University of Auckland engineering students could make scuba diving a much safer sport.
Anatoly Kudryashov and Jenny Xu from the Department of Mechanical Engineering's Mechatronics Engineering specialisation have designed a computerised system to automatically adjust a diver's buoyancy if they get into trouble. The project was supervised by Associate Professor Vojislav Kecman and assisted by Technical Officer Rob Earl.
"The most important task for a diver while underwater is buoyancy control. Normally this is controlled manually by adding or releasing air in a buoyancy control device, which is worn like a jacket," Anatoly says.
"To rise in the water, a diver adds air to the buoyancy control device. To sink, air is let out. If the buoyancy is not adjusted correctly, a diver may rise too rapidly or descend too quickly to an unsafe depth, risking serious injury or sometimes death," Jenny says.
The Electronic Dive Buddy attaches to the buoyancy jacket and monitors the diver's motion while underwater. It automatically adjusts buoyancy if an unsafe depth or velocity is reached. The device also has a 'cruise control' feature, allowing divers to automatically maintain a desired depth in the water.
Anatoly, who is in avid diver, couldn't understand why computer control hadn't been introduced to scuba diving and decided to tackle the problem as part of his assessment for a Bachelor of Engineering Degree. Mechatronics Engineering students work in pairs to complete a major research project in their final year of study.
The Electronic Dive Buddy prototype was tested in the laboratory and in a 4.7 metre deep swimming pool.
"Our tests so far have proven the device to work, so the next step is to look at its marketability. As far as I know, a device like this does not exist," Anatoly says.
Anatoly and Jenny presented their findings at The Department of Mechanical Engineering project display day on Friday, 10 October 2008. The students received an IPENZ Award for the quality of their presentation and display.
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Comments
I have several objections,
I have several objections, both to this article, and this kind of device. First of all, the 'avid' Mr Kudryashov hasn't done his homework. At least one such device as he claims to have designed has been on the market for about 4 years (the 'Aquapilot', see www.divemagazine.co.uk/news/article.asp?uan=852), and there are probably others.
See also:
www.bobbydyer.com/projects/eng/abcd/abcd.htm
www.freepatentsonline.com/5496136.html
www.patentgenius.com/patent/5496136.html
Secondly, the juxtaposed quote from Ms. Xu ("To rise in the water, a diver adds air to the buoyancy control device. To sink, air is let out.") has either been reported out of context, or demonstrates a serious lack of understanding on her part of the physical principles involved. I sincerely hope that the former is the case, considering that this invention is being trumpeted as a 'life-saving device'.
BCD means 'buoyancy compensating (or control) device', and her description is NOT how a manual BCD is (supposed to be) used. Underwater, a diver should be neutrally buoyant at all times, which means that air should be added to the BCD during the descent, no adjustments need normally be made at the target depth, and excess air (i.e. positive buoyancy) should be released as it expands during the ascent. It should NEVER be necessary for a recreational diver to inject air in order to initiate an ascent--swimming upwards will do that quite adequately. To be fair, the quote may be a description of what their Dive Buddy device does, but in the context of the previous quote, this is unclear.
As a former full-time scuba-instructor, my top teaching priority at entry level was always buoyancy control, since it is essential to a safe, comfortable and enjoyable dive. I would go so far as to say that someone who has failed to grasp at least the practical aspects should not have been certified in the first place (and I have on several occasions declined to certify such students as competent divers). I would strongly recommend that rather than investing in a piece of hardware, a non-competent diver put the money into extra tuition (perhaps even repeating their basic training), and learn how to adjust their buoyancy for themselves.
Strapping a (likely) air-hungry device (since it is reactive rather than pro-active) to a non-competent diver's BCD will simply result in faster air consumption, and hence shorter dives, which is a definite disadvantage e.g. when diving in guided groups (as such divers prefer to do). In a worst-case scenario, if the non-competent diver has failed to monitor their gauges on an unguided dive, it could lead to an out-of-air emergency and panic, which is more likely to be fatal than an unexpected ascent.
In short, competent divers won't need this device, and non-competent divers should not be making dives which require safety or decompression stops, so won't derive any appreciable benefit from it (because they should be staying shallow enough that unscheduled ascents are unlikely to do any damage).