Spare Parts

by

Joshua Davis

Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Term Analysis

A tethered, underwater robot. ROVs are usually piloted by a crew on land via cables that send signals and power to the robot. In Spare Parts, the Carl Hayden students compete in the MATE competition, which requires them to build an ROV. This ROV (which they dub “Stinky”) must be able to complete several tasks, including retrieving items, measuring depth, extracting water samples, and calculating temperature.

Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Quotes in Spare Parts

The Spare Parts quotes below are all either spoken by Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) or refer to Remotely operated vehicle (ROV). For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
).
Introduction Quotes

There were teams from across the country, including students from MIT, who were sponsored by ExxonMobil, the world's largest publicly traded company. The Latino kids were from Carl Hayden Community High School in West Phoenix.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda
Related Symbols: Stinky the Robot
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
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Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Term Timeline in Spare Parts

The timeline below shows where the term Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) appears in Spare Parts. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Introduction
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
...Barbara, presenting their project for the third annual Marine Advanced Technology Education Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) competition. The MATE competition is an event sponsored by NASA and the Navy to identify... (full context)
One
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
Teamwork, Friendship, and Motivation Theme Icon
Mentorship Theme Icon
Curiosity, Creativity, and Adventure Theme Icon
...competition hosted by the MATE Center there. The competition is centered on remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), which will have to complete tasks underwater. The trip fosters a new friendship between them,... (full context)
Two
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
Curiosity, Creativity, and Adventure Theme Icon
...the University of California, Santa Barbara. There are seven tasks: students have to build an ROV that measures the submarine’s length and calculates its depth, can navigate inside the submarine, and... (full context)
Teamwork, Friendship, and Motivation Theme Icon
...they have some funding, the students begin to make models to see how big their ROV needs to be to accommodate propellers, sensors, and controls. They then talk through the first... (full context)
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
...it before. On the same trip, Fredi takes the students to SeaBotix, a San Diego-based ROV manufacturer, with the company president, Donald Rodocker. Rodocker takes the students into the laboratory to... (full context)
Curiosity, Creativity, and Adventure Theme Icon
...LBV (little benthic vehicle), which is amazingly compact. Still, it has to contend with the ROV’s biggest problem: its tether. The tether is a bundle of cables that allows the robot’s... (full context)
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
...in their model. Then, he, Cristian, and Lorenzo strategize about how to build the real ROV. Metal will be more compact, but expensive. Cristian proposes glass syntactic flotation foam, which saw... (full context)
Curiosity, Creativity, and Adventure Theme Icon
...pipe. Luis, Cristian, Oscar, and Lorenzo gather in the robotics closet. Cristian sketches out the ROV and calculates the amount of air that will be trapped in the PVC pipes. He... (full context)
Teamwork, Friendship, and Motivation Theme Icon
Curiosity, Creativity, and Adventure Theme Icon
The idea is novel: most teams don’t put the battery on the ROV, because a leak would take down the whole system. But putting it at the bottom... (full context)
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
The third ROV task is the hardest: extracting a liquid sample from inside a barrel while hovering. Oscar... (full context)
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
Curiosity, Creativity, and Adventure Theme Icon
...of the pump. When he tests it, the system’s only flaw is that when the ROV is pulled out of the water to retrieve the sample, the balloon falls over and... (full context)
Curiosity, Creativity, and Adventure Theme Icon
A month after the students begin the ROV project, Dean Kamen releases his annual FIRST challenge. Cristian, Oscar, Lorenzo, and Luis are part... (full context)
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
Teamwork, Friendship, and Motivation Theme Icon
Curiosity, Creativity, and Adventure Theme Icon
After Atlanta, the kids have ten weeks until the ROV championship. Their experience with FIRST proves invaluable. They use the controller from that robot in... (full context)
Three
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
The next morning, at the underwater portion of the competition, Monterey Peninsula College has three ROVs working together and a fifteen-person team. Still, they only get 30 out of 110 points... (full context)
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
Teamwork, Friendship, and Motivation Theme Icon
...place over dinner, and is hosted by Bryce Merrill, a recruiting manager for an industrial ROV firm. Fredi and Allan try to temper the boys’ expectations. They expect that they’ll be... (full context)
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
...entire room is on its feet. Nine months earlier the students didn’t know what an ROV was. Now they have won the 2004 Marine Advanced Technology and Education Explorer class ROV... (full context)
Four
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
Immigration, Prejudice, and the American Dream Theme Icon
Eight months after the ROV competition, Oscar is working on a construction site as a day laborer. He feels stuck.... (full context)