Audrey Landis

For a project in ENGS 147: Mechatronics, my team of 6 and I created a sailboat able to self-navigate around a set of GPS waypoints.

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Based on guidelines for RC sailboat builders, we designed a hull, keel, and rudder in CAD for a meter-long monohull sailboat.  The hull was CNC milled from dock foam and built around a plywood skeleton, on which the motors controlling the sails and rudder would be mounted. It was then smoothed with body filler and covered in a fiberglass layup.  The rudder and keel bulb were 3D printed and the bulb filled with steel shot.  Motors, the microcontroller, batteries, and a power distribution board were mounted in the hull and covered by an acrylic hatch with a foam gasket.  A wind vane and anemometer were constructed using 3D printed components mounted on encoders for precise readings.

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The control system for the sailboat was written in Dynamic C and implemented on an on-board microcontroller.  A set of costates allowed the sailboat to read GPS coordinates and wind direction and speed, determine the optimal path via a potential function, calculate desired positions of the rudder and sail, and implement position control in order to sail between waypoints.

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My main contributions to the project included design, manufacture, and coding of the anemometer and wind vane; CAD, printing, and assembling the rudder and keel bulb; assisting in the fiberglass layup of the hull and keel; and creating the top-level architecture for our control code.