xFOCE Meeting
08 Dec 2011 13:30

Kecy, Salamy, Gomes, Headley

Meeting Topics
Project goals and process
Barriers to FOCE export/adoption/use
Basic System Concepts

Next Steps/Action Items

- input barriers to adoption/use (rah, tor, tm)
- continue discussion of concept designs
- identify set of concept designs we will compare
We'll put a lot of work into evaluating these, so we want to make sure they are the right ones

- develop template for concept designs 
what must each concept design include so they may be compared?

- develop evaluation criteria for key components (from requirements)
- start list of candidate technologies to evaluate (can't evaluate until criteria are defined)

Issues/Questions/Concerns
Some functional blocks (e.g. controller HW, controller SW) contain many components (sub-function blocks). It would require a lot of effort to evaluate alternatives for each component. How can we deal with that?

Notes

Project goals and process
A possible process to follow (please suggest refinements/simplifications/alternatives):
1) identify key barriers to adoption/use

2) develop ~3 system concepts that optimize system elements that address the key barriers

3) Define the contents of a concept design (a concept design template), so that it will be possible to compare the concept designs

4) For each concept design, identify key technologies (general high level functional blocks) processor boards, power sources) and define evaluation criterion for each technology. We don't want to evaluate anything that isn't necessary (e.g commodities, things that don't drive an optimization)

The evaluation criteria should reflect specific requirements and our system concept optimizations:

For concept X, processor options must support a minimum of 16 serial ports
For concept X, processor options must consume less than 2 W max
For concept Y, power source options must provide a minimum of 150W
For concept Z, processors must support a 1.3 CDC Java Virtual Machine

Evaluation criteria should answer the questions: 
Will candidate A work in FOCE concept design X or not? 
Is candidate A better than candidate B?

5) We divide up concept designs to individuals or pairs, and complete concept designs:
Identify technology candidates (specific choices of things like software, motor controllers, processor boards...)
evaluate technology candidates 
select best choice for each technology

Barriers to FOCE export/adoption/use

- manufacturing capability
- underwater housings and connections
- programming capability (UI, embedded)
- power electronics (medium, high voltage, i.e. >100V)
- instrument calibration
- systems engineering (selecting power, processing and software components)
- what else?

[below are some barriers with arrows that point to optimizations that address them, that we came up with during the meeting]

- access to cabled observatory -> (see infrastructure)
- access to ships, ROVs for deployment, recovery, maintenance -> weight, portability, size, low power
- access to engr staff and facilities -> COTS, open source
- budget - > reduce dollar cost, more value for $, open source/free
- shore infrastructure (power, site access) -> low power, easy connection, stand-alone
- permitting -> environmentally friendliness
- language -> documentation, internationalization (UI, doc)

[deep foce]
- underwater mateable connectors
- Ti 4km housings
- 1 kw power
- software for data handling (SSDS)
- full control / experience of full process (mfg->)

Basic System Concepts (what to optimize)
[based on the barriers with arrows above]
- Minimize Dollar Cost
- All COTS
- All open source
- Stand-alone
- Lowest Power?

Elements of a concept design (technology pool)
	- CO2 source 
	- power source 
	- controller hardware 
	- controller software
	- UI software
	- telemetry link
	- thrusters/equiv
	- instruments (pH, CTD, current/flow, DO)
	- environmental sensors (temp, RH, water level, V,I)
	- cameras
	- data merging technologies (to allow customization)

	...other

Evaluation Criteria (what matters, where to be specific)
	- CO2 source

	- power source 
		mfg, model 
		input/output power,
		Input/output voltage(s), current(s)
		energy source
		fundamental requirements (specify)
			
	- controller hardware 
		mfg, model, eval board model, 
		processor speed, flash, 
		memory: RAM, flash (type)
		Built in IO (#, type):  GPIO, USB, UART, SPI, I2C, Eth...
		IO expansion potential
		storage (capacity, number, type, expansion): SD, compact flash
		fundamental requirements (specify)
		
	- controller software
		fundamental requirements (specify)

	- UI software
		fundamental requirements (specify)

	- telemetry link
		fundamental requirements (specify)

	- thrusters
		fundamental requirements (specify)

	- instruments (pH, CTD, current/flow, DO)
		fundamental requirements (specify)

	- environmental sensors (temp, RH, water level, V,I)
		fundamental requirements (specify)

	- cameras
		fundamental requirements (specify)