[Tyler]

Platypus Cooperative Robotic Watercraft
17 October 2012, 6:27 pm

 

Platypus, LLC is a company spun off from CMU's Robotics Institute this year. Their product is an autonomous robot airboat that can be deployed into bodies of water for environmental monitoring, flood response, fish farming, and other applications. The robot itself is made from a polyurethane hull with three primary components mounted on the deck: an electric propulsion fan, a watertight electronics enclosure, and an enclosure for a smartphone. The robot has a variety of water quality sensors that measure dissolved oxygen, temperature, conductivity, and pH. The sensors are monitored by an Arduino. Water samples can be collected as well. The smartphone relays the telemetry and video through 3G or WiFi and can receive instructions from an operator. For more, see a recent Pittsburgh Business Times story on Platypus as well as the CMU Robotics Institute news release. Read more for additional photos and video of the CRW in action.

Source: robots.net

To visit any links mentioned please view the original article, the link is at the top of this post.

[Art]

Nice one Tyler!

A slower method but one with more stability would be to mount the fan under the boat, perhaps a bit smaller and more the batteries and electronics to the lower insides of the vessel.
Wave do happen in water, you know....

The research is interesting.