Project number
26061
Organization
ACABI
Offering
ENGR498-F2025-S2026
Project Goal/Summary: To develop a kit or Pak of air-deployable ocean drones – i.e. AQUABOTS – to monitor, map and sample materials from ocean and large body of water, or surveil contained vital infrastructure, e.g. wind farms, creating data maps and potential sample recovery. Aquabots operate as a swarm under command control.
Aquabots are autonomous water/ocean drones designed to monitor ocean health, sense a wide variety of water indicators and collect material on either a small or large scale (depending upon final drone size); Bots may also monitor vital offshore infrastructure – e.g. wind farms, oil rigs or platforms. The project is motivated by mounting threat to our oceans with plastic contamination and pollutants harming a wide variety of ocean life – ultimately affecting humans. The team will benefit from excellent work of three prior Sr. Engineering teams who built modular components of the Aquabot, namely 1. a simple control and sensor/data gathering system for the drone fleet, and 2. a satellite communication system for the swarm and 3. a novel hull design. It is now time to focus on optimizing the system and building a working demo kit – an AeroPak of an aquatic drone system that may be deployed from an airplane, safely land at sea, disperse and be controllable while gathering sensor information, storing it and communicating info creating a data map!!
Background, Rationale and Project Scope:
The health of the ocean is critical for overall earth and human health. Of concern is the increasing stress being placed on the world’s oceans, and for that matter other bodies of water including lakes and rivers. Increasing pollution from runoff and population growth; increased release/dumping of pollutants, petrochemicals and garbage; lack of recyclability of plastics with generation of dispersed microplastics - all are exponentially affecting ocean/water health. The relentless increase of ocean waste is at risk for impacting the health not only of the oceans but also those organisms who rely directly or indirectly on the sea including humans.
AquaBot drones are being developed to: monitor the state of the oceans, create a data map of specific variables (e.g. salinity, pH, Temp) obtain regional samples and recover plastic and other contaminating materials.
Drones are designed to operate as a fleet or swarm that communicate to a central command, as well as with each other. Operation of swarm behavior to be demonstrated physically or in-silico. Drones must be be robust to be dropped from an airplane as a collective kit. Drone hull design should be self-righting with optimized fluid dynamics - minimal drag/shear, minimal turbulence, with reduced propulsive energy requirements. The drone body should have adequate contained volume to house the propulsion system (electric motor), control and data storage motherboard, sensor bay, witha secure waterproof portal for sensor placement externally.
Specifications – I. Pak – 1. Consists of at least 1 physical drone and up to 8 drones demonstrated in-silico - with contained sensors (e.g. camera, temp., pH, salinity); 2. Safe parachute and aero deployment system to withstand airplane drop terminal velocity, 3. command and control system, 4. communication, 5. data logging and telemetry and 6. Data display map. II. Individual Drone/Hull/Envelope - 1 meter long hull unit, self-righting, waterproof to IP68 – i.e. waterproof to a depth of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes, a non-rope snagging design, run duration 5 hrs, Internal volume of 0.07m3, RC controllable, capable of parachute deployment and ground impact at 40 mph. III. Command and Control – system needs to operate as a controllable “swarm.” Drones should use an Automated Identification System protocol (AIS) to transmit their position and be able to monitor each other’s position. Key control parameters are collision avoidance, search pattern adherence, vessel integrity/health, sensor data communication, error reporting, position mapping. Also diagnostics and maintenance reporting.
Activity/Requirements/Expectations: 1. The team will start by reviewing ALL plans, work and results of prior teams, which is fully available. They will perform gap analysis based on the specifications and the results to date. 2. They will develop a plan, which fills in the gaps, and design and build a working prototype system deployable from a plane, 3. They will demonstrate system operation and test in an aquatic environment.
Specifications – I. Pak – 1. Consists of at least 1 physical drone and up to 8 drones demonstrated in-silico - with contained sensors (e.g. camera, temp., pH, salinity); 2. Safe parachute and aero deployment system to withstand airplane drop terminal velocity, 3. command and control system, 4. communication, 5. data logging and telemetry and 6. Data display map. II. Individual Drone/Hull/Envelope - 1 meter long hull unit, self-righting, waterproof to IP68 – i.e. waterproof to a depth of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes, a non-rope snagging design, run duration 5 hrs, Internal volume of 0.07m3, RC controllable, capable of parachute deployment and ground impact at 40 mph. III. Command and Control – system needs to operate as a controllable “swarm.” Drones should use an Automated Identification System protocol (AIS) to transmit their position and be able to monitor each other’s position. Key control parameters are collision avoidance, search pattern adherence, vessel integrity/health, sensor data communication, error reporting, position mapping. Also diagnostics and maintenance reporting.
Aquabots are autonomous water/ocean drones designed to monitor ocean health, sense a wide variety of water indicators and collect material on either a small or large scale (depending upon final drone size); Bots may also monitor vital offshore infrastructure – e.g. wind farms, oil rigs or platforms. The project is motivated by mounting threat to our oceans with plastic contamination and pollutants harming a wide variety of ocean life – ultimately affecting humans. The team will benefit from excellent work of three prior Sr. Engineering teams who built modular components of the Aquabot, namely 1. a simple control and sensor/data gathering system for the drone fleet, and 2. a satellite communication system for the swarm and 3. a novel hull design. It is now time to focus on optimizing the system and building a working demo kit – an AeroPak of an aquatic drone system that may be deployed from an airplane, safely land at sea, disperse and be controllable while gathering sensor information, storing it and communicating info creating a data map!!
Background, Rationale and Project Scope:
The health of the ocean is critical for overall earth and human health. Of concern is the increasing stress being placed on the world’s oceans, and for that matter other bodies of water including lakes and rivers. Increasing pollution from runoff and population growth; increased release/dumping of pollutants, petrochemicals and garbage; lack of recyclability of plastics with generation of dispersed microplastics - all are exponentially affecting ocean/water health. The relentless increase of ocean waste is at risk for impacting the health not only of the oceans but also those organisms who rely directly or indirectly on the sea including humans.
AquaBot drones are being developed to: monitor the state of the oceans, create a data map of specific variables (e.g. salinity, pH, Temp) obtain regional samples and recover plastic and other contaminating materials.
Drones are designed to operate as a fleet or swarm that communicate to a central command, as well as with each other. Operation of swarm behavior to be demonstrated physically or in-silico. Drones must be be robust to be dropped from an airplane as a collective kit. Drone hull design should be self-righting with optimized fluid dynamics - minimal drag/shear, minimal turbulence, with reduced propulsive energy requirements. The drone body should have adequate contained volume to house the propulsion system (electric motor), control and data storage motherboard, sensor bay, witha secure waterproof portal for sensor placement externally.
Specifications – I. Pak – 1. Consists of at least 1 physical drone and up to 8 drones demonstrated in-silico - with contained sensors (e.g. camera, temp., pH, salinity); 2. Safe parachute and aero deployment system to withstand airplane drop terminal velocity, 3. command and control system, 4. communication, 5. data logging and telemetry and 6. Data display map. II. Individual Drone/Hull/Envelope - 1 meter long hull unit, self-righting, waterproof to IP68 – i.e. waterproof to a depth of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes, a non-rope snagging design, run duration 5 hrs, Internal volume of 0.07m3, RC controllable, capable of parachute deployment and ground impact at 40 mph. III. Command and Control – system needs to operate as a controllable “swarm.” Drones should use an Automated Identification System protocol (AIS) to transmit their position and be able to monitor each other’s position. Key control parameters are collision avoidance, search pattern adherence, vessel integrity/health, sensor data communication, error reporting, position mapping. Also diagnostics and maintenance reporting.
Activity/Requirements/Expectations: 1. The team will start by reviewing ALL plans, work and results of prior teams, which is fully available. They will perform gap analysis based on the specifications and the results to date. 2. They will develop a plan, which fills in the gaps, and design and build a working prototype system deployable from a plane, 3. They will demonstrate system operation and test in an aquatic environment.
Specifications – I. Pak – 1. Consists of at least 1 physical drone and up to 8 drones demonstrated in-silico - with contained sensors (e.g. camera, temp., pH, salinity); 2. Safe parachute and aero deployment system to withstand airplane drop terminal velocity, 3. command and control system, 4. communication, 5. data logging and telemetry and 6. Data display map. II. Individual Drone/Hull/Envelope - 1 meter long hull unit, self-righting, waterproof to IP68 – i.e. waterproof to a depth of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes, a non-rope snagging design, run duration 5 hrs, Internal volume of 0.07m3, RC controllable, capable of parachute deployment and ground impact at 40 mph. III. Command and Control – system needs to operate as a controllable “swarm.” Drones should use an Automated Identification System protocol (AIS) to transmit their position and be able to monitor each other’s position. Key control parameters are collision avoidance, search pattern adherence, vessel integrity/health, sensor data communication, error reporting, position mapping. Also diagnostics and maintenance reporting.