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Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

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Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#71
post #8
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that what a keel does?

Yes, but a keel is also limited right? It's still possible to tip over and - if potentially submerged, not come back up? But to be honest, I have very little knowledge on this topic, so maybe a keel is all it needs!

I would think this would be a perfect application of a deep, full keel (which offers the maximum stability and self-correction, but in a manned sailboat tends to be too deep to bring into certain places which is why so many sailboats don't have full keels.)

That said, I don't know much about sailing other than it being on my bucket list of things to learn so I've been reading up on it, and I've been actively searching for a good simulator that works on gnu/linux... (anyone know of one?)

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#72
post #17

> “It’s fuel, consumables, and I don’t even want to tell you what our satellite bill is for data,” Interesting - the circumference of the earth is roughly 40 thousand km. If these could manage to lift an antenna either 140m (or equivalently 70m for all participants) - distance to Horizon should be roughly 40 km. So a thousand boats could form a theoretical relay net around a theoretical line in the ocean reaching aro…

You could build this type of system with more sparsely placed nodes if you used HF communications, at which frequencies the waves reflect off the ionosphere [1].

[1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywave

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#73
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

something like http://aprs.org

If you care about speed aprs isn't your boat. 1200bps in almost all cases, zero FEC, bandwidth rapidly disappears depending on how many digipeaters overlap. It's good for brief beacon based things but most of the RF tech around it is still stuck in the 80s.

Absolutely agree... but an aprs2 that incorporates some modern tech and modern thought could be interesting. What if every TNC was also a digipeater and they all coordinated to route their traffic via the shortest/best route to shore?

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#74
post #7

I work for a company that builds boats for many of the same goals in a more traditional form factor. The potential of autonomous marine vehicles is very high, and a very exciting field to be working in. https://www.asvglobal.com/ (If you're interested, we're hiring!)

I’m hoping autonomous large scale plastics removal is something being looked into. This seems to be the only way to stem the plastic pollution explosion that has been occurring. I currently work in renewable energy industry but I can see myself wanting to move into this space in 5ish years due to the scale and impact of this problem is having and wanting to work with anyone working towards solutions.

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#75
post #2

> They’ve all come back without a single scratch, just a beard of barnacles Solution: https://wyss.harvard.edu/barnacles-and-mussels-wont-stick-to...

Whoa, if they mandated that on boats, I wonder if it could stop the spread of invasive zebra mussels between lakes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_mussel#North_American_in... One way they spread is by sticking to boats that owners take to a different lake without cleaning them. Cleaning isn't optional, but since it takes work it is unrealistic to believe everyone is going to actually do it. So despite campaigns…

Many of the traditional anti-fouling treatments are poisonous to marine ecosystems. I've heard some evidence that efficacy is inversely proportional to environmental friendliness with real world commercially available coatings.

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#76
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like an oversimplification (read: a poor excuse). Put another way, I bet the pay is low and the the on-ship amenities lacking. Expecting ppl to give you something for nothing isn't SMS's fault.

It seems on-board amenities exactly what's being talked about (and, yes, arguably over-simplified) here. Or are you making a distinction between luxuries and basic living conditions (space, privacy, quality/healthfulness of food)? For some people, no level of internet access would make hot-bunking tolerable.

> "For some people, no level of internet access would make hot-bunking tolerable."

Completely agree. But in this case, those are not the ppl you want working for / with you anyway.

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#77
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment, while I assume you earnestly meant, is enigmatic of the gap between what the lay person may think works at sea and the very harsh and unforgiving reality of the Sea. Source: my father was an engineer at a marine engineering company

I like the wording of your comment, but I think you mean emblematic instead of enigmatic.

Yes, you're right. That's embarrassing.

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#78
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If high endurance air drones are advanced enough, you can coordinate sea and air nodes to make a mesh that avoids clouds and line of sight all-together so you don't have to string the network over the sea level horizon. Maybe have autonomous platforms that allow both to refuel too if they use hybrid systems.

If you are at a high enough altitude clouds would never get in the way so solar power works much better.

Careful, you're almost a satellite now and the original idea was to eliminate the cost of satellite data! Alternatively, if such a UAV was cheaper than a satellite, that would be a whole competitive business in itself!

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#79
post #17

> “It’s fuel, consumables, and I don’t even want to tell you what our satellite bill is for data,” Interesting - the circumference of the earth is roughly 40 thousand km. If these could manage to lift an antenna either 140m (or equivalently 70m for all participants) - distance to Horizon should be roughly 40 km. So a thousand boats could form a theoretical relay net around a theoretical line in the ocean reaching aro…

You could build this type of system with more sparsely placed nodes if you used HF communications, at which frequencies the waves reflect off the ionosphere [1]. [1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywave

In most political regions the max data rate for HF transmissions is very, very low.

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#80
post #7

I work for a company that builds boats for many of the same goals in a more traditional form factor. The potential of autonomous marine vehicles is very high, and a very exciting field to be working in. https://www.asvglobal.com/ (If you're interested, we're hiring!)

Do you need anybody in the US? I'm a senior marine engineer, working on my masters in CS. I'm interested in larger UUV's and USV's in general.

Most of our software roles (one of the biggest teams we're growing at the moment) are located in the U.S.! We'd be very interested to hear from you.
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