Unmanned Electric Race Boat
ArduPilot, Electronics, Autonomous Systems
Video provided by the American Society of Naval Engineers.
Overview
For my undergraduate Capstone project at William & Mary, I led a team in building a boat from scratch to compete in the Unmanned Division of the 2023 Promoting Electric Propulsion for Small Craft (PEP) competition, a 5-mile endurance race. Our fully electric boat placed 3rd against universities from across the country.
Our catamaran-style differential-drive boat, fondly named the Colonial Cruiser, ran ArduPilot Rover on a Pixhawk Cube Orange and was controlled via radio during the competition, though it was capable of autonomous navigation during controlled tests.
As the Team and Electrical Lead, I focused on the autonomous navigation and electric propulsion systems of the boat, though I had a hand in everything from hull design to the power distribution systems.
Team: Owen Darcy, Ethan Chang, Shamsullah Ahmadzai
Advisor: Jonathan Frey
ArduPilot Ground Station setup.
Final touches before the competition.
Testing on the lake.