Comments

• Admin

  Thomas J Coyle III August 5, 2015 at 6:29am

  Hi All,

  Because of the building interest in ROVs I have featured the ROV Project Discussion Thread in the Discussion Forum so that it will be easily located.

  Regards,

  TCIII
• Developer

  Grant Morphett July 8, 2015 at 4:57pm

  Hi everyone.  The T3 is back and Chris Anderson from 3DR has generously given the green light for boat entries - details here. 

  http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/t3-back-to-the-future?commentId...

  I reckon some of you out there have boats that can take it to the aircraft.  And 200m x 200m space on a lake should be ok.  I am REALLY looking forward to seeing what speed daemon's you people break out.  Get racing!!

  Thanks, Grant.
• Admin

  Thomas J Coyle III June 10, 2015 at 6:48pm

  Chris, I was going to ask you if you were Editor in Chief at that time at Wired.

  Regards,

  Tom C AVD
• 3D Robotics

  Chris Anderson June 10, 2015 at 6:23pm

  It's based on this story I ran in Wired.
• Admin

  Thomas J Coyle III June 10, 2015 at 6:20pm

  Hi All,

  For those of you who would like to see an inspirational movie concerning an underdog team that built a ROV that beat MIT, here is your chance Spare Parts

  Regards,

  TCIII AVD
• Admin

  Thomas J Coyle III April 23, 2015 at 6:19pm

  Hi All,

  For those of you who are interested I have updated my VBox R/C Boat for Autonomous Offshore Competition build discussion thread with pictures of the Navigation Controller and the Navigation Controller Deck Plate.

  Regards,

  Tom C AVD
• Developer

  Grant Morphett February 10, 2015 at 12:56pm

  Hi Mitchell. 

  We haven't taught the APM how to sail however if someone was keen to do that it would be great. 

  Regarding solar-powered I'm unaware of anyone having done that within this forum.
  As for sailing around the world I see no technical limitation to that.  We could probably use our simulator to simulate it however we would need to alter the model so it could go much faster and thus complete the trip in a day or two rather then weeks.

  Thanks, Grant
• bigkahuna February 9, 2015 at 5:50pm

  Is it possible to program an autonomous model to follow GPS coordinates to travel around the world?

  I don't think anyone can really say, but the technology is definitely moving towards that capability. To my knowledge "underwater gliders" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_glider ) have been the most successful long distance, autonomous ocean craft to date. Surface craft have a great many more obstacles to avoid (weather, other craft, legal issues, etc.) so may not be the best platform for this goal. But there are lots of autonomous boat projects out there, but I am not aware of any that have successfully crossed an ocean yet.
• Mitchell Leary February 9, 2015 at 1:46pm

  Hi!
  
  I'm new to the forum and am looking to find out if there is anyone here who has put together a successful Autonomous, GPS-Guided, either solar-powered or sailboat?
  I've seen a few successful test runs demonstrated on YouTube but I'd like to see how many have achieved this and how far this technology can currently be taken?
  Is it possible to program an autonomous model to follow GPS coordinates to travel around the world?
  I'm very interested to hear from you.
  
  Thanks all and looking forward to interacting in the group with you all.
  
  Mitch
• Admin

  Thomas J Coyle III January 20, 2015 at 2:51pm

  Hi David,

  Thanks for the insight, much appreciated.

  On my Traxxas Villain autonomous boat I had calibrated the GPS/Compass module separately from the boat since it was installed on the removable navigation controller platform. After the navigation platform was mounted on the Villain hull the compass was off by about 30 deg which was caused by the magnetic field of the two motors down in the hull under the navigation controller platform. Moral of this story is to calibrate the GP/Compass module while attached to the hull so that it can compensate for the motor's magnetic field:-)

  However moving this big a hull in three axes and 6 different positions is going to be kind of tough!

  Regards,

  Tom C AVD