Catacombs and Castles in Mdina

Today the team was finally completed as Professor Wood flew in to Malta and joined us. Professor Clark will be flying back to California in a few days and from then Professor Wood will oversee most of our deployments and data analysis.

Today the team explored Mdina, an important cultural site in Malta. The site of ruins from Phoenician times to Medieval times, it is one of the greatest examples of the depth of Malta's history and how many different great civilizations have rubbed shoulders on this small island in the middle of the Mediterranean. The city was founded by the Phoenicians in the 8th century B.C. and has since been occupied by the Romans, Arabs and the Order of St. John, a medieval order of knights, serving as the fortified capital of the island until the capital was eventually moved by the order in 1530. It has since declined in usage, but has remained as an impressive fortification visible from much of the island, due to its elevated location.

The team arriving in Mdina

The first location visited by the team were the catacombs. These seem to have been used from Roman times until Medieval times, with both Christian, Roman, and Jewish people being entombed in their depths. These catacombs have served many purposes differing from their original purpose across the years, from oratories and chapels for Christians to air raid shelters during WWII.

                   The catacomb's narrow confines         small plant life growing in             A hallway in the catacombs                                                                                                              the catacombs   

                        A stone with an engraving marking      Another engraved stone            Sam struggles with the confines  
                        occupation of the entombed                                                                           of the catacomb

After the exploring the catacombs, the team stopped for a quick lunch and then explored the walls of the castle along with the moat. Since the castle is elevated and has high walls, the views are absolutely spectacular

The weather was particularly beautiful as well, with a fairly strong wind that allowed for far greater visibility than usual. Malta is often quite humid, and that creates a strong haze that brings the visibility down to a several kilometers. The team had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the sites

A good personality pic for the team 

A quick panorama of the view from the castle

A beautiful group photo courtesy of Professor Wood's phone

Exploring Ħaġar Qim and the US Embassy (6/14)

Today was one of our cross-cultural learning days. In the morning, we took the bus to Ħaġar Qim, a complex of neolithic temples that are some of the oldest, free-standing, stone structures in the world. We first watched a 4D movie, complete with strobing lights and water droplets, about the history of the place and walked through a small museum.

Sam and Makoto ready for the 4D movie

We then went down to see the actual temples and learn more about them.

View of one of the temples with a canopy to protect it from the elements

Sam reading a placard describing the structure

View of the island Filfla from inside the temples

Makoto and Nandeeka discussing the temple

After that, we went to the US embassy where we learned about the sustainability efforts within the compound as well as some of their outreach efforts to the local community. Upon coming back to Sliema, we went to a sea-side bar for smoothies and coffee.

Sam's mochaccino

Sonar Review 6/13

The deployment this morning overall went very well.  The waves were much larger than the past few days; however, we were still able to get lots of good data.  The missions ran smoothly again, giving us plenty of sonar files to look at.  After an early deployment this morning, the team came back to analyze the sonar data from the last few days spent surveying.  Everyone found the data analysis and software extremely interesting.

Later in the afternoon, Dr. Gambin came over to our apartment to review the sonar data using SonarWiz.  He taught us how to look over the data carefully and distinguish what features make a target a likely wreck.

Using the TV monitor to view sonar data

Analyzing sonar data with Dr. Gambin

The rest of today will likely be coding and analyzing all of the data obtained from the last few days work.  Due to wind and wave conditions, we don't think we will be able to deploy tomorrow or Friday, but we are hopeful that we are going to get more missions in over the weekend and next week!

Morning Glory

This morning we departed at 5:00am for a sunrise deployment, hoping to find some more wrecks with the AUV.

Offshore Survey Day 2 (6/12)

Today we went out again to continue the open ocean shipwreck survey missions.  Makoto took charge of planning the day's lawnmower missions in VectorMap and resolved the settings issues that cut short several of the dive paths planned for yesterday.  As such, the planned missions went very smoothly and the large majority of the day on the boat was spent either waiting around for the robot to surface, verifying that the robot looked OK when it surfaced, and checking the robot battery life in between missions to make sure that it would be safe to run the next mission.  The missions for today also included one that filled in the sections of seafloor we missed yesterday because of mission errors, so we are slowly making our way across the survey rectangle given by Dr. Gambin and filling in the unknown regions of the map.

Makoto looking out for the robot

It was a beautiful day at sea, with low wind, sunny skies, and a nice sunset.  Although waiting for the robot was sometimes boring, we're actually thankful that there was little to do because it was a sign that the robot was running smoothly and collecting good data consistently.  We have a very early departure time tomorrow morning (5AM) to get as many survey missions in as possible before the wind picks up tomorrow midday, and hopefully our early morning deployments are as uneventful as the deployments were today.  The more uneventful missions we have, the more quality data we will have to work with in the days to come when we have to stay on land.  

IVER glamour shot

-Russell

  

The First Offshore Survey

Yesterday the team conducted our first offshore survey of this years project. We left the apartment at around 3:00pm yesterday with IVER in tow, and walked the short distance to the docs to the dock. Here we met up with Dr. Gambin, two of his graduate students John and Cece, and captain Kevin . Shortly afterwards we set off, exiting out of Marsamxett Harbour and heading northeast.

Weather was ideal, granting us good visibility and low winds. First release of the IVER went smoothly and was aided by the convenient inclusion of a diving elevator on the boat. However, just a few minutes after release an error message was broadcast from the IVER and it began resurfacing. Following the IVER’s reported coordinates we spent a good ten to fifteen minutes searching with no success. The situation was becoming worrisome, but just then Mitchell managed to spot the robot off in the distance. Afterwards the team determined that the error message and mission abort were the result of a maximum depth threshold that had not been reset for these deeper surveys. Additionally, a reset of the boats GPS system corrected a discrepancy between the IVER’s GPS which had lead us to the wrong locations while searching.

A second launch started clean with the first leg of the survey being completed. Unfortunately upon resurfacing we noticed the IVER having difficulty diving back down. This issue was resolved shortly afterwards and was, in short, the result of the IVER’s DVL altimeter being unable to detect the sea-floor once the robot was angled downwards for a dive. The IVER was reconfigured to continue diving regardless of altimeter reading up until it reaches 50m bellow the surface, resolving the prior issue.

The third launch went off without a hitch, and we were able to get a full 3-legged mission completed prior to sunset. Afterwards we headed back into the harbor, unloaded our gear, and met back at the apartment for dinner and analysis of the collected data. During initial overview of the collected sonar data Dr. Gambin was able to identify several potential points of interest, as well as point out debris from a known dumping sight nearby. We’re all eager to find investigate these location further, and to continue surveying the area for new archaeological sites over the next couple of weeks.

We also welcomed Dr. Ambereen Dadabhoy to Malta when she arrived yesterday evening. She will be joining us on surveys, and conducting her own humanities focused research during her stay in the country.

- Kolton Yager

Late Day Deployments

This evening we deployed the AUV for some additional deployments. Sunlight was getting low so we aren't sure about the quality of the video we captured, but we were able to test a new lighting configuration and run several successful AUV paths generated by Sam and Russell's new RRT path planner.

Above: Waiting for our ride after the deployments near Valletta - Sam, Nandeeka, Russell, Makoto, and Bonita.