About 50 school-aged students are attending AMIkids PCMI for summer camp and some of them have been working to get industry certified in underwater robotics.
Triumph Gulf Coast, which oversees money from the 2010 Deep Horizon oil spill settlement, is funding the AMIkids remotely operated vehicle (ROV) program. AMIkids had sought funding for aviation and construction programs, but Triumph officials wanted to focus on underwater robotics.
"They asked us to do underwater robotics because they want to make Bay County a hub for all kinds of underwater or unmanned systems," said Ron Boyce, executive director of AMIkids PCMI. "This is just the beginning. Next, we're going to add unmanned UUVs, underwater unmanned vessels, which means there won't be a tether on them."
Boyce said they're using the latest industry technology. He said companies will pay workers starting at about $38,000 a year to operate the same underwater ROVs that the students are using.
One of the big challenges that Boyce talked about was the students thought moving the ROVs would be similar to playing a video game. He said the students found out quickly that it's more complex than that.
The students have been learning about the vehicles in the classroom and how to maintain them. They also have been learning how to read the computer software that will let them know if the equipment isn't working properly, Boyce said.
The course lasts three days, and afterward the students take a certification exam. The first part of the exam has 25 multiple choice questions, while the students must successfully complete outside field "missions" for the second part.
One of the missions the students have been working on is picking up a golf ball with the underwater vehicle and dropping the ball into a pipe. This exercise will show if the student has good command of the vehicle because it takes a delicate touch to drop the ball into the pipe.
Students also get real-world experience by learning what it would be like if they're tasked to check pipes underwater. They use a sonar system to find a pipe in the water and drive the vehicle into the pipe to inspect it.
One of the AMIkids instructors, Mechelle Grady, said it's important to expose the students to different things such as underwater robotics.
"I have a lot of kids that are interested in the underwater robotics course because they didn't know it existed," Grady said. "Now that they've learned it existed, they want to take it. But in order to take the class they had to be committed to making sure they were in the class for three days."
Grady added that the students are really excited about the course. She said she went out to the boardwalk where the students conduct the field exercises and learned some things herself.
Boyce said he is hopeful that the program grows and more students will get into it. He also said he wants to expand the course so adults can take it to help them get industry-certified.
©2021 The News Herald (Panama City, Fla.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
