While most of the drones we hear about today are hobbyist quadcopters, autonomous delivery vehicles, and military aircraft that fly through the air, autonomous vehicles can be used for just about any form of transportation we can think of. (Clay Builds) has been hard at work developing a drone that is actually an autonomous boat, and they use it to map the underwater terrain of various lakes. In this video, they walk us through the process of designing and building this particular vehicle, and then demonstrate it in action.
The boat itself is inspired by sailing catamarans, which are two equally sized hulls connected above the waterline, providing more stability and less drag than a standard monohull. This is (Clay)’s second autonomous boat, and it’s essentially a bigger, more powerful version of the one we featured earlier. As with the previous version, the hull is connected to solar panels and its support structure, which also power the boat and charge the lithium iron phosphate batteries inside the hull. Steering is done by two rudders, one on each hull, but also employs differential steering for situations where more precise turning is required. The boat is equipped with a sonar-type device for measuring water depth, which is housed in a more hydrodynamic 3D printed housing to reduce drag in the water, and can combine GPS and compass readings to perform waypoint missions.
Like any project of this nature, it took a lot of testing and design iterations before the vessel was truly seaworthy. The original steering mechanism was a weak point, as the original design involved two rudders connected by a belt that would sometimes slip out of place. But after a bit of testing and resolving these issues, the solar boat was off to measure the depth of the water. You can find the project code and some data on the project’s GitHub page. If you’re looking for something more human-sized, check out this solar kayak.
