Ground Station

The Ground Station team creates an onshore system for monitoring live data transmitted by the boat while on the water. They are responsible for setting up the wireless network between the boat and the onshore system, parsing boat transmissions into readable information, and displaying information such as the boat’s position, sensor measurements, and autonomous decisions. …

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ROS & Simulations

The ROS (Robot Operating System) team uses the ROS software libraries and tools to enable communication between the Perception, AI, and Controls code. They are also responsible for building a simulation framework that interfaces with the ROS framework to test code. Members spend a lot of time thinking about the big picture of our codebase, …

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Cooling System

The E-bay (electrical bay) temperature is regulated via an open water cooling system. In an open water system, water is pumped in from the lake, passed through a heat exchanger to cool the air blowing over the electrical components. Using the environment to its advantage, the cooling system will effectively regulate the E-bay temperatures using …

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Propulsion

The boat uses dual T200 thrusters that are mounted on the back of each ama. With two thrusters set 2 feet apart, the boat maneuvers with differential steering; capable of moving forwards, backwards, spin in place, and any combination of the three. Thrusters are controlled via Electronics Speed Controllers and Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) through …

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Manufacturing

Main Hull The hull design and manufacturing team focuses on creating a boat that performs optimally in the water. We utilize simulation tools like Ansys and Orca to ensure the boat’s stability, efficiency, speed, and AI compatibility. Additionally, we employ composite fabrication, machining, and 3D printing techniques to construct the boat while minimizing weight and …

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Robotics and Actuation

The robotics and actuation team develops the boat’s advanced capabilities, enabling it to move and interact with its surroundings. This includes designing and integrating components like the water shooter, skeeball launcher, and propulsion systems.   Future goals: Build and implement a robotic arm on the boat, implement a holonomic propulsion system.

Design Justification

Cad of Assembly Trimaran This year we opted to go for a trimaran design to maximize stability. Stability is crucial for our mission since the computer vision model works best when viewing a clear image from the camera. Trimarans are very stable due to the two hulls on the side (called amas). If the boat …

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Electrical Systems

The E-Systems team is responsible for powering all boat components and facilitating communication between them. They achieve this through PCB design, microcontroller programming, and the implementation of transceivers and remote controllers. Future goals: Implementing CAN bus, robotic arm positional control

Perception

Intro The Perception team is responsible for translating the boat’s surroundings, position, and orientation into information useful for decision making. This encompasses both computer vision and sensors. Members working on computer vision spend time researching neural networks, building and training an object detection model, augmenting and annotating data, and integrating the model with our ZED …

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Controls & Microcontroller Design

Intro The Controls & Microcontrollers team is responsible for all the software involved in moving the boat’s motors based on a desired movement. This is split into two pieces: control algorithms and microcontroller design. The group designs, implements, and tunes our own control algorithms to determine what signals need to be sent to the motors …

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