USV Geochemical Profiles
The introduction of a new compact USV platform opened the door for another unique application of the WaSP that we have been using on UAV projects for years (see handout below for more UAV info). A Blue Robotics Blue Boat provides new opportunities in site characterization and monitoring. These boats have a surprisingly long run time (many hours on a few small batteries) and are a nice compact size (4ft x 3ft and 20" tall). They are easy to move around and deploy and a great base for custom USV builds.
We have been using aerial drones for water sampling for the better part of a decade, but battery life is always the limiting factor. A custom frame for one of these boats was fabricated to carry this patented reel system on a new vessel where time doesn't dictate our mission. It gives us far more time to collect data, allows for slower profiling in deep water without racing the clock of UAV battery life, and tends to be less stress inducing than $50K or $60K flying around over an acid lake. We were convinced!
A custom TIG welded aluminum structure pulled the WaSP away from water and prepared it to collect data. This kind of weight on an otherwise small cube shaped boat became an issue with stability by creating a strong moment arm with the sampling equipment so high above center of gravity. A simple solution was putting an out rigger type system on the boat, but orient it ahead and behind the boat to stop it from rocking during acceleration/deceleration and eliminate the risk of it flipping. First trip out was about two miles of open water and 3 profiles ranging from 30m to 100+m deep using our EXO1 Sonde.
We added enough weight to this little boat that we decided to supplement flotation with some foam panels and flip our stabilizing structure above the crossmembers to get it away from the water a little more. Less drag, more battery, more data collection to be done!
