Mapping the depths with an autonomous solar boat
Have you ever looked at a pond, stream, or river and wondered how deep it is? For large bodies of water that are considered navigable, it's fairly easy to pull a map and find out. But what if there is no public data for the area you are interested in?
Well, you could spend all day on a small boat taking depth readings and creating your own map, but if you're like [Clay], you could build an autonomous solar-powered robot to do that for you. He's been working on the boat, which he calls Gumption Trap, for almost a year now. If we had to guess, we'd say the experience of designing and building it ended up being a bit more interesting for him than the actual depth of the water - but that's fine with us.
Rounding the rear of the craft are a pair of massive 3D printed thrusters, complete with remarkably thick printed propellers. The lack of rudders simplifies things, with enough differential thrust between the two engines to keep the Gumption pointed in the right direction.
A waterproof container contains the batteries, the solar charge controller, the radio equipment (for manual control) and the main computer. This computer is a custom circuit board containing various modules that make up the brains of the operation. This includes a Blue Robotics Teensy microcontroller, GPS, compass, and Ping echo sounder that Clay says cost more than the rest of the project put together. But of course you get what you pay for, and it's hard to argue the investment wasn't worth it when you look at the impressive 3D depth maps it managed to produce with the data it generates.
For anyone looking to define...
Have you ever looked at a pond, stream, or river and wondered how deep it is? For large bodies of water that are considered navigable, it's fairly easy to pull a map and find out. But what if there is no public data for the area you are interested in?
Well, you could spend all day on a small boat taking depth readings and creating your own map, but if you're like [Clay], you could build an autonomous solar-powered robot to do that for you. He's been working on the boat, which he calls Gumption Trap, for almost a year now. If we had to guess, we'd say the experience of designing and building it ended up being a bit more interesting for him than the actual depth of the water - but that's fine with us.
Rounding the rear of the craft are a pair of massive 3D printed thrusters, complete with remarkably thick printed propellers. The lack of rudders simplifies things, with enough differential thrust between the two engines to keep the Gumption pointed in the right direction.
A waterproof container contains the batteries, the solar charge controller, the radio equipment (for manual control) and the main computer. This computer is a custom circuit board containing various modules that make up the brains of the operation. This includes a Blue Robotics Teensy microcontroller, GPS, compass, and Ping echo sounder that Clay says cost more than the rest of the project put together. But of course you get what you pay for, and it's hard to argue the investment wasn't worth it when you look at the impressive 3D depth maps it managed to produce with the data it generates.
For anyone looking to define...
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