After competing in the 2022 RobotX Challenge, Team AMORE (website) set their sights on the 2023 RoboBoat Competition, a similar event by the same organizers which used much smaller and simpler vessels. The team would only have three months to create a new robot from scratch, so we decided to use the same GNC system as our WAM-V, but move it onto a smaller hull. These large electronics would require a fairly large hull, and the decision was made to buy a commercial children’s 6’ kayak instead of trying to design such a large hull on such short notice.

The kayak, named the Sarda-ine, was assembled for the first time a week before the team left to compete in Florida, and most of the competition time was spent troubleshooting the electrical system. The kayak did however make it into the water on the last day and completed two tasks.

The Sarda-ine performing horizontal zooplankton tows

Getting the Sarda-ine in the water at RoboBoat 2023

The Kayak was abandoned in favor of a hull deigned by Florida Atlantic University for RoboBoat 2024, but revived later on for autonomous zooplankton collection. The kayak group switched out the original scrap plywood deck for a smaller aluminum one and developed a mechanism for raising and lowering a zooplankton net. Finally it was put to use collecting zooplankton for research being conducted by a member of the team from the biology department.

Links

Team AMORE’s website

Sarda-ine documentation