Unema’s Underwater Robotics Engineering Career

This was an thrilling break for Unema, a Washington state native who had grown up tinkering with electronics and exploring the outside. Unema joined the crew in early 2016 and has since helped develop and function deep-sea robots for scientific expeditions across the globe.

The GFOE’s contract with NOAA expired in July, forcing the engineering crew to disband. However quickly after, Unema teamed up with 4 former colleagues to start out their very own ROV consultancy, known as Deep Exploration Solutions, to proceed the work he’s so obsessed with.

“I like the exploration and simply seeing new issues on daily basis,” he says. “And the engineering challenges that go together with it are actually thrilling, as a result of there’s lots of stress down there and lots of technical issues to resolve.”

Nature and Expertise

Unema’s fascination with electronics began early. Rising up in Lynden, Wash., he took aside radios, modified headphones, and hacked collectively USB chargers from AA batteries. “I’ve at all times needed to understand how issues work,” he says. He was additionally a Boy Scout, and far of his youth was spent climbing, tenting, and snowboarding.

That love of each know-how and nature could be traced again, a minimum of partially, to his dad and mom—his father was a civil engineer, and his mom was a high-school biology instructor. However one other main affect rising up was Kredit, the science instructor who went on to recruit him. (Kredit was additionally a colleague of Unema’s mom.)

Kredit has received quite a few awards for his work as an educator, together with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Instructing in 2004. Like Unema, he additionally shares a love for the outside as Yellowstone Nationwide Park’s longest-serving park ranger. “He was a wonderful science instructor, very inspiring,” says Unema.

When Unema graduated highschool in 2010, he determined to enroll at his father’s alma mater, Michigan Technological University, to check engineering. He was initially uncertain what self-discipline to comply with and signed up for the overall engineering course, however he rapidly settled on electrical engineering.

A summer season internship at a metal mill run by the multinational company ArcelorMittal launched Unema to manufacturing unit automation and meeting strains. After graduating in 2014 he took a job at Gentex Corp. in Zeeland, Mich., the place he labored on manufacturing programs and industrial robotics.

Diving Into Underwater Robotics

In late 2015, he obtained the decision from Kredit asking if he’d be excited about engaged on underwater robots for GFOE. The function concerned not simply engineering these programs, but additionally piloting them. Taking the plunge was a troublesome alternative, says Unema, as he’d simply been promoted at Gentex. However the promise of journey mixed with the novel engineering challenges made it too good a chance to show down.

Constructing know-how that may stand up to the crushing stress on the backside of the ocean is hard, he says, and it’s a must to make trade-offs between weight, dimension, and value. Every thing must be waterproof, and electronics should be rigorously remoted to stop them from grounding on the ocean ground. Some parts are pressure-tolerant, however most have to be saved in pressurized titanium flasks, so the parts have to be extraordinarily small to reduce the scale of the metallic housing.

Unema conducts predive checks from the Okeanos Explorer’s management room. As soon as the ROV is launched, scientists will watch the digicam feeds and advise his crew the place to direct the car.Art Howard

“You’re working very carefully with the mechanical engineer to suit the electronics in a extremely small area,” he says. “The smaller the cylinder is, the cheaper it’s, but additionally the much less mass on the car. Each little bit of mass means extra buoyancy is required, so that you wish to preserve issues small, preserve issues gentle.”

Communications are one other problem. The ROVs depend on a number of kilometers of cable containing simply three single-mode optical fibers. “All of the communication wants to return collectively after which go up one cable,” Unema says. “And yearly new devices devour extra knowledge.”

He works completely on ROVs which might be customized made for scientific analysis, which require smoother management and significantly extra electronics and instrumentation than the heavier-duty autos utilized by the oil and gas trade. “The science ones are all hand-built, they’re all quirky,” he says.

Unema’s function spans the complete life cycle of an ROV’s design, building, and operation. He primarily spends winters upgrading and sustaining autos and summers piloting them on expeditions. At GFOE, he primarily labored on two ROVs for NOAA known as Deep Discoverer and Seirios, which function from the ship Okeanos Explorer. However he has additionally piloted ROVs for different organizations over time, together with the Schmidt Ocean Institute and the Ocean Exploration Trust.

Unema’s new consultancy, Deep Exploration Options, has been given a contract to do the winter upkeep on the NOAA ROVs, and the agency is now looking out for extra ROV design and improve work, in addition to piloting jobs.

An Engineer’s Life at Sea

On expeditions, Unema is answerable for driving the robotic. He follows directions from a science crew that watches the ROV’s video feed to determine issues like corals, sponges, or deepwater creatures that they’d like to research in additional element. Typically he may also function hydraulic arms to pattern significantly attention-grabbing finds.

Basically, the missions are aimed toward discovering new species and mapping the vary of recognized ones, says Unema. “There’s lots of the underside of the ocean the place we don’t know something about it,” he says. “Principally each expedition there’s some new species.”

This includes being at sea for weeks at a time. Unema says that life aboard ships could be difficult—many new crew members get seasick, and also you spend nearly a month residing in shut quarters with folks you’ve typically by no means met earlier than. However he enjoys the chance to fulfill colleagues from all kinds of backgrounds who’re all deeply enthusiastic concerning the mission.

“It’s like once you go to scout camp or summer season camp,” he says. “You’re all assembly new folks. Everybody’s actually excited to be there. We don’t know what we’re going to search out.”

Unema additionally relishes the problem of fixing engineering issues with the limited resources available on the ship. “We’re going out to the center of the Pacific,” he says. “Issues break, and also you’ve obtained to repair them with what you will have on the market.”

If that sounds extra thrilling than daunting, and also you’re excited about working with ROVs, Unema’s most important recommendation is to speak to engineers within the subject. It’s a small however pleasant neighborhood, he says, so simply do your analysis to see what alternatives can be found. Some teams, such because the Ocean Exploration Belief, additionally function internships for school college students to assist them get expertise within the subject.

And Unema says there are only a few careers fairly prefer it. “I adore it as a result of I get to do all facets of engineering—from concept to operations,” he says. “To have the ability to take one thing I labored on and use it within the subject is actually rewarding.”

This text seems within the December 2025 print concern as “Levi Unema.”