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WASUB

​WASUB is a Dreamteam consisting of members of the TU Delft and the VU Amsterdam. It is a team of more than 25 students originating from all kind of different studies. Together we design, build and race human-powered submarine with the jointly goal of becoming World Champions!

"Our goal is to build the fastest human powered submarine in the world"

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The RACE

Every year a new submarine is designed, built and eventually raced in the annual International Submarine Races. During these races, different teams from universities from all around the globe compete against each other to find out who built the best submarine. ​

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Our HISTORY

​In recent years WASUB had great success. In 2016 WASUB VI beat all the other universities during the eISR. WASUB V currently holds the world-speed record for single person human-powered submarines, which was set during the 13th ISR, where they reached a speed of 7.42 knots (13.74 km/h). A speed two times as fast as an Olympic swimmer!

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Meet the TEAM

Meet the
DEPARTMENTS

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​Management

Team Manager:
"The management of WASUB consists of five managers, namely the Team manager, Financial manager, Project manager, Chief engineer and the Operations manager.
All managers are responsible for respectively, the wellbeing of the team members, keeping the team financially healthy throughout the year, make sure that a record breaking submarine is finished in time and make sure that we are seen at all relevant events and social media channels. Managing a D:DREAM Dreamteam is all about organising your recourses in order to reach the team’s objectives."

The operations department organizes events and makes sure that the team joins several big events where the whole maritime world comes together. The events include the design presentation, the honouring of the previous team and of course the christening of our submarine. Besides that, it is necessary to keep everyone updated about the process of building our submarine.
Therefore we use social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, because in the end, it is our task that everyone knows what WASUB is doing!

​Operations

​Drivetrain & Propulsion

Chief Drivetrain​ & Propulsion
"There are three major systems that make up the drivetrain of our submarine. The propellers, the frame and the gear train. The function of the drivetrain is of course to convert as much power from the pilot to forward propulsion.
This year, we developed some innovations that will help us with this. To gather data, we already used RPM and velocity sensors in previous years, but we added a torque sensor to the mix to measure the power output of the pilot. It will give us a deeper understanding of the characteristics of our system.
​Our second big innovation comes in the form of a feedback system that can tell the pilot how fast he should be pedalling. By using all our data we can tell the pilot exactly how fast he should be pedalling at every point of the race to be as efficient as possible. This has never been done before by any team. It will certainly give us a huge advantage during the race and a high chance of breaking the speed record."

The Human Power Department of Wasub is responsible for the engine of the submarine: The pilot. We are students from the faculty of Human Movement Sciences at the VU Amsterdam. Our department is responsible for the recruitment, selecting, training an monitoring of the pilot so he or she can deliver peak performance during the race. We work closely together with the engineers from the hull & fins and the drivetrain department to find a pilot that will fit in the submarine and will be able to deliver human power to the drivetrain in the most optimal way.
The Human Power Department starts every year with the recruitment of pilots. After this period, the selection procedure follows, in which the recruited candidates are tested for both mental and physical capacity and their motivation. After multiple rounds, the pilots are selected and the training and monitoring phase starts. In the end we have a pilot that can get the maximum performance out of the submarine

​Human Power

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​Hull & Fins

Chief Hull ​& Fins:
"The hull and fins department is all about the hull and the fins, logically. But what exactly does that mean? We design, innovate and create our own hull, the outer shell, to be able to achieve the maximum performance. We do this by using a carbon fibre sandwich with a foam core. Our department is constantly busy designing, cresting and testing different fins, fin setups and finally choosing the best possible fins for the race. We work together a lot with the other departments in order to get the perfect fit between all the components."

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Stability & Control

Chief Stability & Control:
​"In stability and control we develop a system which lets the pilot control the submarine while collecting data on the pilot’s performance and the submarine's performance. The pilot gets control via two joysticks which control four servomotors connected to each of the four fins. The performance is measured by various sensors throughout the submarine measuring data such as the speed of the submarine, the depth of the submarine, the RPM of the propellers and the power output of the pilot. All this data is processed and stored in a central computer for later use. One of the most important things is that no water should come in contact with the electronics. Therefore we produce aluminium boxes with a watertight seal that keeps the electronics dry and functioning."

Chief Dynamics and Simulation:
"​The Dynamics & Simulation department is working on the development of a simulator of the submarine in commercial software like Simulink.
We have implemented a numerical model of the submarine in matlab/simulink that can be used for design purposes. The idea is that given a certain design parameters set (fin size, hull size, etc) we are able to predict the performance of the submarine. This way, we simulate the response of the submarine to various input signals, so we can understand how the rotational and translational dynamics evolve over time. This is really useful for not only the design of this year's submarine but also next generation teams."

Dynamics & Simulation