If you wish to construct your personal rover, there’s loads of low-cost RC vans on the market that can present a serviceable chassis to work with. Seeking to go airborne with a customized drone? Because of the immense reputation of first-person view (FPV) flying, you’ll discover a almost infinite number of inexpensive mounted wing and quadcopter platforms on the market to selected from. However relating to robotic watercraft, the turn-key choices aren’t almost as plentiful; the toys are all too small, and the industrial choices are priced for entities which have an R&D funds to burn. For novice aquatic explorers, creativity is the secret.
Take for instance this impressive vessel built by [wesgood]. With a 3D printed electronics enclosure mounted to a pair of pontoons manufactured from low-cost 4-inch PVC pipe out there from the ironmongery store, it supplies a secure platform with out breaking the financial institution. Business jet drive items constructed into the printed tail caps for the pipes present propulsion, and permit the craft to be steered by differential thrust. With out rudders or uncovered propellers, this design is especially well-suited for working in shallow waters.
Perched excessive above the water, the electronics field accommodates a Raspberry Pi 2, BU353 USB GPS receiver, and a Arduino Mega 2560 paired with a customized PCB that provides up handy ports to attach a dual-channel Cytron 3 amp motor driver and Adafruit BNO055 9-DOF IMU. Energy is supplied by two 6,000 mAh LiPo batteries mounted low within the pontoons, and an identical pair of Adafruit present/voltage sensors are used to maintain observe of the power funds. A small USB WiFi dongle with an exterior antenna plugged into the Pi gives up a WiFi community that [wesgood] can connect with with an iPad for management.
If the management software program for the craft appears to be like significantly well-polished, it’s most likely as a result of [wesgood] simply so occurs to be knowledgeable developer with a deal with cell purposes. Whereas we’re a bit skeptical of utilizing WiFi for a crucial long-distance hyperlink, we will’t deny that the iPad permits for a really slick interface. Along with displaying the standing of the craft’s numerous techniques, it lets the person both take guide management or place waypoints for autonomous navigation — though it appears like that final characteristic is simply partially applied proper now.
We love this design, and are desperate to see extra because the challenge develops. Just lately [wesgood] experimented with payloads that can be suspended from the bottom of the electronics box, particularly a sonar module for performing bathymetric observations. There’s appreciable curiosity in crowd sourced depth maps for inland waterways, and a robotic craft that may reliably chart these areas autonomously is certainly a step up from having to collect the data manually.
