SA school students build remote control vehicles to monitor wetland health

More than 60 students from across Adelaide will compete at Unity Park tomorrow to see who has built the best remote controlled water sampling vehicle.

The Suburban Wetlands Acquisition and Telemetry (SWAT) System program requires students to build a vehicle that can collect 500 mL water samples to effectively and efficiently monitor water quality in South Australian wetlands.

Given only a black box controller, a fan and some basic electronics, the Year 11 students have had 10 weeks to develop and design a vehicle, build a remote steering system and find a way to pump the water onto the vehicle. Teams also have to plan the best way to get the water back to the control station.

The team who can collect the most full water samples from the four locations at Unity Park in 10 minutes will be the winner.

BAE Systems has supported the SWAT program for more than four years. The program supports the South Australian government’s STEM strategy by using technical and engineering problem solving principles to find a solution to real-world problems.

The program was started by BAE Systems engineer Peter Morgenthaler, who completed a similar project in his final year of tertiary study. He said: “I had a lot of fun with a very similar project at university and it really convinced me that I’d chosen the right path with engineering. I wanted to share that with other students.

“The beauty of this program is that it is unique in South Australia. Unlike other programs that sample from a fixed point that requires human access, this program gets students to develop a vehicle that can be directed to a specific location, conduct some water sampling and map and log the data for further analysis.”

But the competition isn’t over yet - students will also prepare an oral presentation and be assessed on their design and ability to sell their product. Final results will be presented on 14 November at the Golden Grove Recreation Centre.