Battery packs for Slocum Glider

During my time as a Summer Student Fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), I designed and built rechargeable battery packs for a Slocum underwater glider. These vehicles are driven in a sawtooth-type pattern to collect ocean data and carry out various missions, and are mainly powered by two battery packs: a "pitch pack" at the fore end of the vehicle that is used to control the pitch of the vehicle, and an aft pack that is mounted stationary to the aft end of the vehicle. My designs incorporated Inspired Energy rechargeable batteries, arranged to replace the primary (non-rechargeable) packs that were being used. This design would allow the glider vehicle to be able to be recharged in between missions without re-ballasting, allowing the vehicle to be used many times during a research cruise.

The final design for the pitch pack included carbon fiber plates connected by titanium rods, and aluminum spacers to hold the batteries in place. The final design for the aft pack was similar, featuring carbon fiber plates to hold the batteries in place and protect them, with an aluminum end plate and titanium mounting bracket.

This work was published in MIT's Undergraduate Research Journal (M.U.R.J.): Volume 32, Fall 2016.