UNF team hopes Surf Rover will help researchers protect beaches

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A University of North Florida professor and his students are trying to learn what’s going on underwater during a storm to protect local beaches.

The Surf Rover is part dune buggy, part amphibious crawler.

UNF Engineering professor William Dally and his team of students built a quarter-scale model first, which they took for a test run at Jacksonville Beach.

Now they’re building the full-size rover.

Eventually, it will weigh 3,000 pounds.

“I think we know more about the surface of Mars than we know about the surf zone during the storm,” said Dally.

The Surf Rover’s tank track will allow it to move on the ocean floor along the coast.

“Its primary purpose is to survey the beach during the storm. We don’t have much – lots of pre-storm surveys, post-storm surveys, but nothing about how the bar behaves and how the beach erodes during the storm,” said Dally.

Dally said that knowledge is essential to figuring out the best way to renourish the sand on local beaches.

More than 80 students have worked on the project at some point.

“Having that many brains can certainly be helpful. You get a lot of different ideas. But then you have to filter through all those ideas and figure out which ones you do,” said UNF senior Peter Bohn.

When the full-scale rover is complete, it’s going to be 16 feet wide and 22 feet long.

Its folding design will allow it to be transported to the beach on a boat trailer.

Dally expects to start testing the Surf Rover in the water next year.

Cox Media Group