1.2 m autonomous boat hull ideas?

[bigkahuna]

Yup, saw that.

[spidennis]

swath or not, this is closer to what I was thinking:
http://youtu.be/Ly_roxxTA-o

[Submarine Tom]

Originally Posted by bigkahuna

I'm familiar with the Dorado project which was similar to where I originally thought I'd go with this project, but I started having second thoughts when I considered how I was going to maintain the vessel's neutral buoyancy in various conditions and water densities.

Not sure where my "ultimate" design will go but ran into this project a few days go which seems to work quite well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P2HiD-d1Ok

Pretty simple: Ballast tanks, preferably automatic. Auto trim tab approach for fine tuning while making-way.

I looked at the YouTube video. What was it you wanted me to get from that? All I saw was big and little boats going back and forth across a river. It didn't have any understandable audio.

-Tom

[Submarine Tom]

Originally Posted by spidennis

swath or not, this is closer to what I was thinking:
http://youtu.be/Ly_roxxTA-o

Ya, I saw that one too. By singling up the hull, drag could be reduced. If battery life/weight is that big an issue.

I'd be tempted to go with an enclosed TeeDee .049 gas engine but there's too much undefined in the mission to really give anything more than ideas, most of which are rejected.

Sounds like our builder is looking for the ever elusive "ultimate" and with no time frame, may never get there...

-Tom

[bigkahuna]

@spidennis - I actually have a fair bit of experience with SWATH (worked on the design team for the first Navatek SWATH: http://www.navatekltd.com/swath.html ). Interesting video.

@Tom - Watch the video again and you'll see a small boat motoring back and forth across the little channel there. That's an autonomously controled 10 foot canoe powered by 2 trolling motors. If you watch closely you'll see a USCG rescue boat motor right past it and apparently they don't even give it a second look.

[Submarine Tom]

"Autonomously controlled" what is it you mean by that?

-Tom

[bigkahuna]

It is completely self controlled, relies on a high precision GPS and other instruments to follow a predetermined track while compensating for current. I hope to get my project to that point eventually, but the first iteration will likely be at least partly human controlled.

Thanks everyone for your contributions. I asked for some ideas and got plenty of them. I appreciate your participation.

[spidennis]

Prototype GHOST military watercraft claims a world's first (super-cavitating)
http://www.gizmag.com/ghost-super-ca...ry-boat/21137/
kinda looks like that diy pcv thing I posted earlier ..... this one blows bubbles

[portacruise]

Ya, maybe concept based on super cavitating torpedos. These are supposed to be the world's fastest, going over hundreds? of mph...

Porta

Originally Posted by spidennis

Prototype GHOST military watercraft claims a world's first (super-cavitating)
http://www.gizmag.com/ghost-super-ca...ry-boat/21137/
kinda looks like that diy pcv thing I posted earlier ..... this one blows bubbles