Development and Systems Integration of Small Hydrofoiling Robot for Mapping and Sensing

Abstract: Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) are vehicles of various levels of autonomy which can be made for a large variety of purposes, for instance ferriage and surveying. USV shave technically been around for about 80 years, however, it is only within fairly recent years developments in miniaturization of components and computers have allowed for the construction of USVs of a small size. The primary benefit of USVs is that they can perform otherwise costly and tedious tasks originally done by manned vehicles. They can also run on electric batteries; thus limiting the effect on the environment compared to the fossil fuels used in traditional vehicles. In this project, performed at the Swedish Maritime Robotics Center at KTH Stockholm, a small USV meant to perform depth measurements of waterways was developed. It can be steered via remote control and has the hardware required to navigate autonomously. This report goes through the multiple steps the project group undertook to develop the USV. The project included studying of previous works, selection and ordering of components, creating a schematic, developing the programming, and testing. 11 components were installed while several planned ones were not included due to time constraints. Testing of the remote control and GNSS logging was successful.