Networked R/C Catamaran for ME218C
For Stanford's ME218C Mechatronics class in spring of 2010, my team of three was challenged to design and create a reliable waterborne craft that could interact with floating RFID targets and avoid being inundated with water spray from aggressive competing vessels, all while being controlled remotely via a novel, exciting interface, and communicating with other boats via a collectively student-created wireless protocol.
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Faced with a meager three week time allowance, our team tackled the project head on with a rugged dual propeller driven catamaran sporting a rotating robotic arm for defense and waterproofed electronics housings. We implemented robust state machines (pictured below) in order to handle on-board processing for all boat functions.
Simultaneously, we created a wearable input device with a handheld accelerometer box to control each propeller via tank drive, as well as a waist-mounted compass box to control the defensive robotic arm via amusing, dance-like hip rotations. Our control box communicated with the catamaran via wireless Zigbee modules.
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In the end we created an incredible system whose reliability was only equaled by the joy it brought to users. The tank drive plus hip action control method proved a crowd favorite (see videos at right!) and our dual hull, dual prop design yielded one of the fastest and most stable boats in the class.
 To see more even images and videos of our boat in action, please click here.
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