Pescabot #2: Flotability tests

We have found an old RC-powered boat that may just work as the base for Pescabot, it has a 27MHz receiver and a (yet-to-be-determined) motor, plus a servo to steer it left or right.

It has very little space for extra hardware, so it is unclear if we will be able to use it as our base model, however we first wanted to check it floated:

We wanted to test both a sea-shore deployment and a "falling from the sky" deployment, as we eventually have the idea to drop-it from a quadcopter.

The tests were successful :-)

Dollbot #1: Functionality ideas

Another of our robot projects for the summer of 2015 is Dollbot, an autonomous doll transport vessel.

Dollbot needs to be able to comfortably fit 2 dolls and move in any direction in a pool of water. The directions can either be programmed or a final GPS destination given to take the dolls to safe harbour.

We will build it in an iterative fashion, as follows:

* Dollbot can move in any direction
* Dollbot can be programmed to move and spin in any direction
* Dollbot can reach a GPS destination

Pescabot #1: Functionality ideas

One of our robot project for the 2015 summer is Pescabot, an autonomous seagoing fishing robot.

Pescabot will be placed on the seashore with a pre-loaded set of GPS waypoints to fish in and a time limit. Pescabot will cast a line on each of the waypoints and wait for a fish to pull the line, catching it. Once a fish has been caught, it will be reeled in and brought back to the seashore (same location where it entered the water) - if no fish is caught after a time limit (or if the battery is running out) Pescabot will go back to the seashore.

We will iteratively implement the following key functionalities:

1. The boat can be controlled remotely
2. The boat can transmit location back to the base station over up to 2km
3. The boat can navigate automatically using GPS to a set of waypoints and back to the start
4. The boat can reel out and back in when a fish pulls the line
5. The boat can cut the line in an emergency

Nice ideas to consider in the future:

1. Batteries can be recharged using solar panels

Splashbots: projects for summer 2015

Splashbots is our project for the summer of 2015, where we will be developing water-going robots to help with some basic tasks.

Here is a brief intro by the project team describing the concepts:


Water and electronics do not tend to mix well (specially sea-water as will be needed for Pescabot) so we will be learning quite a bit about protection and maintenance techniques of maritime equipment.

For Pescabot we want to learn about GPS on sea-going vessels and the control of the reel.

For Dollbot we want to emulate as close as possible the basic building block of the DARPA "Tactically Expandable Maritime Platform", we love the University of Pennsylvania video.