Project number
25030
Organization
ACABI
Offering
ENGR498-F2024-S2025
Project Goal/Summary: To develop a sleek, hydrodynamic, optimized, self-righting hull design for an autonomous water/ocean drone. The optimized hull design will form the basis for manufacture of a swarm or fleet of autonomous water/ocean drones known as “Aquabots.”
Aquabots are autonomous water/ocean drones designed to monitor ocean health, sample and sense a wide variety of water indicators and collect material on either a small or large scale (depending upon final drone size). The project is motivated by increasing threat to our oceans with contamination by plastics and harm to a wide variety of ocean life. The team will benefit from excellent work of two prior Sr. Engineering teams who built other 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. It is now time to focus on the Aquabot hull design!! We have called this project “Fluence” – which in Latin means “fluid and flow”; and in English means “magical”. This is what we strive to this design and build - i.e sleek fluid flow with a bit of magic!
The team will develop an optimized hull design for the aquatic drone. Drones are designed to operate as a fleet or swarm that communicate to a central command, as well as with each other. The drones are envisioned to be robust enough to be dropped from an airplane as a collective kit, as well as placed directly in the water. The hull design should be self-righting and with optimized fluid and hydrodynamics to have minimal drag/shear, induce minimal turbulence, and 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, and have a secure waterproof portal for sensor placement externally.
Specifications – 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 11mph.
Requirements: (1) Research into hull types (2) Identify how these systems can be adopted (3) Design a suitable hull system and drives (4) Demonstrate system operation through prototyping and testing. Friday afternoon mentoring sessions (for all Kidney/ACABI teams) on a rotating pre-scheduled basis will be in place to provide adequate guidance.
Aquabots are autonomous water/ocean drones designed to monitor ocean health, sample and sense a wide variety of water indicators and collect material on either a small or large scale (depending upon final drone size). The project is motivated by increasing threat to our oceans with contamination by plastics and harm to a wide variety of ocean life. The team will benefit from excellent work of two prior Sr. Engineering teams who built other 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. It is now time to focus on the Aquabot hull design!! We have called this project “Fluence” – which in Latin means “fluid and flow”; and in English means “magical”. This is what we strive to this design and build - i.e sleek fluid flow with a bit of magic!
The team will develop an optimized hull design for the aquatic drone. Drones are designed to operate as a fleet or swarm that communicate to a central command, as well as with each other. The drones are envisioned to be robust enough to be dropped from an airplane as a collective kit, as well as placed directly in the water. The hull design should be self-righting and with optimized fluid and hydrodynamics to have minimal drag/shear, induce minimal turbulence, and 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, and have a secure waterproof portal for sensor placement externally.
Specifications – 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 11mph.
Requirements: (1) Research into hull types (2) Identify how these systems can be adopted (3) Design a suitable hull system and drives (4) Demonstrate system operation through prototyping and testing. Friday afternoon mentoring sessions (for all Kidney/ACABI teams) on a rotating pre-scheduled basis will be in place to provide adequate guidance.