I’ve seen a video of US Navy using an Xbox controller (arguably for experimental weapon iirc but still). If it just works why overengineer it? I would be more concerned about that hull (scuttlebutt says it was just carbon over titanium frame, not titanium hull overlayed with carbon). However I guess we will have to wait until they find the boat to know the reason for failure.
Exactly. Making the controls yourself isn’t necessarily better, as long as the rudders and engines are engineered properly. Some seperate (emergency) control might be a good idea, in case the Bluetooth fails. Just to get the submarine back to the surface.
The submarine is a one-off experimental one that isn’t certified, hasn’t been used a lot and dives deeper than almost any other submarine. That’s enough alarm bells for me. Whatever they use to control the vessel is irrelevant to me.
Classing may be effective at filtering out unsatisfactory designers and builders, but the established standards do little to weed out subpar vessel operators
For the same reasons electric cars that use drive by wire need redundancy. All you need is a stuck switch or a little stick drift and WHAMO you can’t pilot your submarine. There are safety stands for cars more stringent than this. So no, it’s not better because it’s simple. This one of two subs in the world capable of these depths, an Logitech f710 doesn’t cut it here.
I’ve seen a video of US Navy using an Xbox controller (arguably for experimental weapon iirc but still). If it just works why overengineer it? I would be more concerned about that hull (scuttlebutt says it was just carbon over titanium frame, not titanium hull overlayed with carbon). However I guess we will have to wait until they find the boat to know the reason for failure.
Exactly. Making the controls yourself isn’t necessarily better, as long as the rudders and engines are engineered properly. Some seperate (emergency) control might be a good idea, in case the Bluetooth fails. Just to get the submarine back to the surface.
The submarine is a one-off experimental one that isn’t certified, hasn’t been used a lot and dives deeper than almost any other submarine. That’s enough alarm bells for me. Whatever they use to control the vessel is irrelevant to me.
Read their blog post about the their subs aren’t classed
https://oceangate.com/news-and-media/blog/2019-0221-why-titan-is-not-classed.html
I ran out of red flags halfway through.
The Navy started using Xbox controllers for the periscope on submarines.
They also still have the old interface system and it was chosen because new personnel found it intuitive. Not because it was the cheapest option.
For the same reasons electric cars that use drive by wire need redundancy. All you need is a stuck switch or a little stick drift and WHAMO you can’t pilot your submarine. There are safety stands for cars more stringent than this. So no, it’s not better because it’s simple. This one of two subs in the world capable of these depths, an Logitech f710 doesn’t cut it here.