Description

The SHARC Buoy is a battery powered device designed for deployment in the Marginal Ice Zone of the Southern Ocean. A novel wind sensor design is required to measure wind velocity in this environment. Due to likely freezing, no moving parts may be used, therefore, a strain gauge based sensor has been proposed although other technologies must be investigated. This sensor is to be incorporated into the SHARC Buoy platform in a future design revision.

The project will involve the following tasks:

• Investigate wind velocity sensor technologies and wind measurement protocols.
• Investigate the expected operating conditions in the Southern Ocean and the constraints imposed by them.
• Review the SHARC Buoy design to inform technology limitations on the proposed sensor.
• Develop detailed design specifications for the wind sensor project based on the preceding analysis.
• Development and testing of a prototype sensor and its associated hardware/software.

Key skills/interests

Mechatronics design, embedded systems development, fundamental sciences.

Expected outputs

1x MSc (Eng), 1x Journal/Conference paper in a leading publication.

Supervisors

James Hepworth and Robyn Verrinder

Funding

A bursary may be available to the selected candidate through the NRF SANAP grant.