Boat mapping platform

ArduRover ArduBoat
1

Hello,

I am looking for a solution to embark my single beam dual frequency sonar (1-30khz/200kh) onto a boat to map shallow bays (this sonar works in 20cm of water). Do you all have suggestions or experience with packages that already exist? I currently map out of kayaks or jon boats (or airboat) but looking something that can carry my rig using my RTK system. THe boat does not need to use my RTK GNSS (Emlid RS2 or even RS+) for positioning, but I am pretty content with the sonar I have and do not need another setup. I just need a carrier which uses mission planner for planning the mission.
I am a bit on the budget, but I think I can make it work for a sub $5000 price tag.

I also have a small roto molded catamaran that I can put a trolling motor on and could use that too and go completely custom. But all working system would be my preference right now…or just revamp something that already exists like autoboat from brazil.

Thanks for your help and tips.

2

Hi @hydrocynus,

I think BlueRobotics BlueBoat is a good fit for what you’re describing. I’ve got one and did a blog post here recently.

3

Hi @hydrocynus

We have a similar setup to what you have described. Plastic hull cat, with a dual frequency SBES and an RS2+ RTK setup via NTRIP, 75Ah of batteries, long-range WiFi, and 4G connection plus the normal telemetry radios.

The RS2+ currently doesn’t feed into the AP as we only use it for SBES positioning. The AP has dual GNSS receivers that provide the AP with position/speed etc.

It’s taken a little while to get sorted with a number of rebuilds, but overall it’s fairly cheap to buy the components and I think what we have ended up with is far more than anything you can buy off the shelf for anywhere near the same price.

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4

Hi @PESAC,

By the way, we’re always happy to add links to ready-to-use / easy-to-buy frame to this wiki page.

5

I’m just starting out on my own journey with a similar aim - so thought it better to add to this thread than create a new one. I want to build up a boat that can use for autonomous and controlled missions to do bathymetric surveys using my Emlid Reach RTK GPS and CeeEcho single beam sounder. I’m in Australia. I’m taking this on as a learning exercise as well as making sure I can continue to customise and upgrade as needed to get the rig I want.

My main concerns are:

  1. Sourcing a good hull/multihull for estuarine surveys (generally smooth water, occasional boat wake, some wind waves).
  2. Long distance controller link (at least 1km), generally line of sight, but maybe not always.

The blueboat certainly looks like a good contender. Just wondering if any other alternatives are floating :slight_smile: around? If there are online hull plans for a good setup I’m willing to weld up a sheet aluminum version.

I was hoping someone might be able to link some good blogs/guides on getting started with a suitable arduboat build. I have looked at the First Time Setup and Configuration — Rover documentation.
Any pointers appreciated.
thanks

6

I like

  • RFD900’s - long range telemetry modems. 915mhz NZ & Oz friendly. RC goes over the link.
  • Blue robotics thrusters x2
  • Ardurover on a flight controller of some kind
  • Einhill / Ozito 20v drill batteries, cheap and awesome.
  • Catamaran design - a couple of downpipes, 3d printed bow/stern, aluminium cross members
  • waterproof box…
  • do the math so the waterline is mid-point up the round hulls = least weight, least drag, most range
  • Build it light, and it will go far.
  • Build it cheap and you can make many.
    Have fun !

ps - if it fits in your car/vehicle, thats a big bonus.

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7

Hi Paul,
Thanks for the specific recommendations. I’m totally new to this so this is much appreciated.
Your post made me realise that of course it can be a cheap/temporary build while optimising. I haven’t got a 3D printer, but maybe it’s time to invest.
Good tip on the batteries - are there off the shelf clip on connectors that can be used, or are we talking about just jamming some wires in? Actually I guess there must be thousands of dead ozito tools lying around so, connectors are probably easy to come by.

From what I understand, I need the following:
Hull - PVC cat will do for now
Thrusters x2 Blue robotic T200
Speed controllers x2
Flight controller. Something that won’t be limiting. Suggestions? H743 Wlite ??
Telemetry modems (one at each end?)
Antennas (recommendations?)
Batteries
Laptop

If someone had a working combination/shopping list to start from that would be most appreciated.
What’s used for manual control? Xbox controller linked to laptop? or a separate RC controller? What’s most common?

I’ve been thinking about what features I’d like to integrate approximately in order of preference:

  • Easy switch between full autonomy and manual steering + ability to resume autonomous mission.
  • Data telemetry to shore (data is able to be stored on my onboard sounder, however having real-time NMEA data back to shore is ideal. My current manned boat set up uses ethernet to bring data from the sounder to a laptop. Apparently wifi bandwidth isn’t enough to send all data (full echogram) realtime. I was considering using ubiquiti bullet radios.
  • manual start/stop data recording (easy if the data is being recorded back at the laptop)
  • accurate positioning (using RTK GPS). The Emlid Reach can provide wifi/bluetooth or wired connection NMEA data at 5Hz)
    -FPV camera
    Cheers
    Mick
8

I am also developing an autonomous boat to do bathymetry. I purchased two hulls and all the necessary hardware, but unfortunately I’m stuck because I can’t get the T200s to work in any way. Maybe I underestimated the thing and it’s too complex, or maybe there’s a small detail that escapes me and that once solved will make everything easier. At the moment I’m quite desperate and will look for help in the various forums… :slight_smile:

9

Hey Mick,
lots of options, im happy with my choices, but whatever works…

T200 + standard ESC’s work nicely at 20v good speed and efficiency
Paolo - the standard ESC is just a PWM RC input. 1500 is zero 1000 is full reverse 2000 is forward…
try a servo tester on the PWM signal of your ESC’s - you need voltage across the ESC - if all is good - it should beep on power up. Talk to Blue Robotics - their support team is excellent if this doesnt work.

Flight Controller - Boats are low tech and slow so whatever works. I used an old pixhawk. H743 stuff is excellent - if you need lua scripts, check out it meets the requrieents first - most 743 stuff does.

I used M8N gps - good enough. Waterproof it !

comms - antenna’s - depends on the range you need. Check the pics for the ones i use - apprx 200mm and massive range in the km’s - but line of sight. You need to matchh the frequency to your legal laws. NZ works on 915mhz legally up to 1w, check your laws and purchase a couple of RFD900x + antennas to match. (or other telemetry stuff) Wifi works well - but i havent pushed that past 1km.

Find an RC Controller and receiver. The reciever must have PPM (signals multiplexed into 1 port) to play nicecly with pixhawks - lots of choice here. If you muck about a bit you can piggyback the RC signal over the RFD900x’s which is very cool for long range control and telemetry

Batteries - i use 3x 4Amp 20v ozito batteries. 3d printed connectors that slide over the terminals, going to an XT60 connector. 3 of these joined up in series gives 12Amp/hr of capacity - which gives around 7km of range. NZ $120 (USD 80ish) for a 3 pack of these batteries !! Ozito battery packs are high quality with an excellent BMS. Wasted on powertools.

https://www.bunnings.com.au/ozito-pxc-18v-4-0ah-battery-quad-pack-pxbp-440_p0595324

RTK - na, unless you need that precision. The $30 M8N is excellent for my needs. $500 RTK if you need it…

Controller - i use a taranis with D4r2 FRsky receiver. Its older, but i like it. Im thinking 6 channels minimum. More is better. I use 4 im thinking. The Ping1d depth sounder records onto the ardurover and goes over the telemetry.

FPV - i use an old android phone with the free and awesome IP Webcam app. Streaming vid over wifi with H264.

Yep - 3d printer is a learning curve - designing parts needs some 3d design software skills, the alternative is to buy ready made.

My biggest recommendation - weight control - keep your boat light, and it will travel far and fast.
good luck !

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10

Great stuff Paul… I’ve got a deadline hanging over me a the moment, so might take some time to digest that info and specific models. Interesting comments re ozito quality, I’ve never given them a second thought.
RTK - this will be for professional hydrographic survey when elevation (in tidal waters) is critical and I have several RTK Reach units available. I realise I don’t need that sort of positional accuracy for navigation, but I figure why not try and use it since it’ll be on the boat? Similarly, my sonar needs to be survey grade (cm accuracy), so I’d be using my CeeEcho box (https://ceehydrosystems.com/products/single-beam-echo-sounders/cee-echo/) and transducer which I already have.
Love the video of that aquatic rocket ship (liked and subscribed!) - certainly proves your weight recommendation.

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yep Ozito is the cheapest brand here in nz, so assumed to be… . Its not, strangely.

The DIY Rtk F9P i’ve built up is excellent for lat/long but a bit crap vertically, +/- 50mm from memory.
I nerded out a while back and calculated the tidal change from the change in depths at the same locations over time (where the boat crossed its own path). It generated a nice curves matching the tide and allowed un-tiding the dataset. Luckily im only playing at being a surveyer. Cheers.

12

Hi Mick,

We (PESAC) are in Australia and have built our own autonomous survey boat(s). The most recent survey we completed, one of the boats traveled over 75kms of survey lines, which we thought was pretty impressive for a boat that can be carried by a single person. Designed wise, we have done much the same as what people have suggest above.

Survey side we us dual frequency SBES & ntrip corrections to an emlid. Remote accessible onboard pc for both survey and optional connection to autopilot, this saves the isses you will have when you’re a long way away. Also long range video, which I think it’s a must if you plan to operate more than a 100 or so metres away.

We ship our boat all over australia and hire it out to others. Very impressive what the ardupilot team have done to allow us to do what we do.

If you have any questions on building your own or want a boat to use feel free to reach out.

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13

Hi Pete, that’s certainly covering some distance!
I’m interested in how the remote PC works and the hardware to make that work?
For my manned surveys (boat, jetski or kayak) I do the following:
Emlid Reach with sim receives NTRIP CORS corrections and sends NMEA position serial data to my CeeEcho sounder box. Then CeeEcho sends full echogram and position data via ethernet to a field tablet (FC5000 same as a Mesa2 tablet), running Hydromagic on windows 10. So I know how to set that up, I’m just not sure how to go about remote control/mirror of the PC/tablet. Idea. That would be a pretty cool solution to onboard control of the survey info.
Cheers
Mick

14

Hi Mick,

There are a number of options for remote access of the onboard PC.

We have a wireless LAN bridge which is good for areas with no reception. This gives a range of about 1 to 2km. This puts the acquisition PC on the same network as the local computer, then we use VNC for control/viewing.

Locations we have reception we use the 4G connection, this gives you a number of options for connections. This would be our preferred option as its quicker.

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15

Reading around a bit, those T200 thrusters seem like the go. A couple of specific questions:

  • Paul: You mention ‘standard’ ESCs. Do you mean the ‘basic’ ones that you can just order from Blue Robotics with the thruster?
  • is the best spot to buy the thrusters just direct of Blue Robotics? I couldn’t really find an alternative.
  • also I noticed on the blue robotics site that you can get the T200 with cable penetrator, or without. Firstly, is the it handy to get the penetrator? but more importantly, I noticed this version had clockwise or anticlockwise options, whereas the normal T200 didn’t seem to have this option. I would assume, just like for a manned boat, that twin motors with the opposite rotation are desirable?
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yep - Basic ESC’s - nothing fancy, but no issues for us and our 20v system.

we puchased ours from New Zealands local agent. Cant help past that.

I note Blue Robotics support is way beyond acceptable, id run with awesome.

Cable penetrators - unless you have another plan to keep the water out…

The T200’s we had arrived with 2 props each (a while back) CW and CCW. Yes to running them in opposite directions. Not the end of the world if you cant, but opposite means no prop walking.
The motors are easily configured for either direction, its just the props you need for each direction.

We have the ping1d depth sounder as well. Plug n play with ardupilot. Works well. Cheers

ps - we killed a couple of T200s - own goal, definately clean & flush the motors well. Salt water is not friendly. Lesson learnt, we do better post trip cleaning. No claim asked for, as this was our maintenance fail.

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OK thanks that all make sense. Most of my work is salt water. I feel your pain. Good heads up on flushing.

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I second the T200 thrusters, they are a great bit of equipment. I have thought about changing to different ESCs, more to something a bit more suited to being mounted. But so far have works wrll for us.

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Love the pic - Great to see your robot boat tearing up the water :slight_smile: - that wake pattern is lovely !

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Looks like a floating CIA base with all the antennas. Thanks Pete.

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