Autonomous Sailboat
Faculty Mentor Name
Stephen Bruder, Matt Pavlina
Format Preference
Poster
Abstract
Autonomous vehicles have existed since the 1980s, and within the past decade, the number of autonomous vehicles used in consumer and commercial settings has skyrocketed. The Autonomous Sailboat team – also known as the Prescott Yacht Club, PYC - will utilize weather data, GPS, and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scans to detect the position and the surroundings of the boat to adjust its course in real time. The project began as a LiDAR testing group, attempting to solve LiDAR's limited range underwater. LiDAR has been identified as a lower-cost option and is unrestricted by the government. While the initial project was successful in developing an underwater housing for the LiDAR sensor, we aim to take the previous results and optimize the operating system and the data analysis method in the autonomous system. Currently, the team will design and fabricate a fiberglass catamaran hull and a rigging system. On the software aspect of the project, we will construct a circuit to integrate the sensors, and program the autonomous code using MATLAB. The Autonomous Sailboat team aims to not only advance our experience in LiDAR technology and autonomous systems with hopes to design an optimal control system to aid future marine and deep space research.
Autonomous Sailboat
Autonomous vehicles have existed since the 1980s, and within the past decade, the number of autonomous vehicles used in consumer and commercial settings has skyrocketed. The Autonomous Sailboat team – also known as the Prescott Yacht Club, PYC - will utilize weather data, GPS, and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scans to detect the position and the surroundings of the boat to adjust its course in real time. The project began as a LiDAR testing group, attempting to solve LiDAR's limited range underwater. LiDAR has been identified as a lower-cost option and is unrestricted by the government. While the initial project was successful in developing an underwater housing for the LiDAR sensor, we aim to take the previous results and optimize the operating system and the data analysis method in the autonomous system. Currently, the team will design and fabricate a fiberglass catamaran hull and a rigging system. On the software aspect of the project, we will construct a circuit to integrate the sensors, and program the autonomous code using MATLAB. The Autonomous Sailboat team aims to not only advance our experience in LiDAR technology and autonomous systems with hopes to design an optimal control system to aid future marine and deep space research.