Self-Stabilizing Boat’s Deck Is Always Flat, Even in Rough Waters
1–10 of 29 posts
Re: Self-Stabilizing Boat’s Deck Is Always Flat, Even in Rough Waters
#2Exposed moving parts and salt water: Perfect bedfellows...
Re: Self-Stabilizing Boat’s Deck Is Always Flat, Even in Rough Waters
#3The inventor, David Hall, is an interesting guy. He started off making subwoofers and among other things he invented the 3D Lidar system used by the winners (and second place) of the DARPA Urban Challenge. Also used in the Google self driving car.
Re: Self-Stabilizing Boat’s Deck Is Always Flat, Even in Rough Waters
#4Exposed moving parts and salt water: Perfect bedfellows...
Not a lot moreso than you'd see in a hovercraft, which are currently used in some jurisdictions (including locally where I live) for the kind of rescue work this technology is initially aimed at.
It's actually a pretty clever example of disruptive tech: it does almost everything a hovercraft does but is far closer to conventional tech and will likely be cheaper and lower maintenance.
Re: Self-Stabilizing Boat’s Deck Is Always Flat, Even in Rough Waters
#5Exposed moving parts and salt water: Perfect bedfellows...
Because that combination hasn't ever come up in any other application?
Re: Self-Stabilizing Boat’s Deck Is Always Flat, Even in Rough Waters
#6There are a lot of people talking about sea sickness but the reality is that sea sickness is usually a bigger problem standing still rather than moving. I could see some applications for bay usage, I would be pretty scared in the open ocean.
Re: Self-Stabilizing Boat’s Deck Is Always Flat, Even in Rough Waters
#7Pretty cool. If the thing could carry a single car, and the system would allow one to lower the center section so that one could drive on and drive off, I could see it as an interesting addition to cross bay traffic. Going 30 knots on the water straight from the say Moffet to the Embarcadero in SF could conceivably be faster than trying to navigate it that way by freeway.
Re: Self-Stabilizing Boat’s Deck Is Always Flat, Even in Rough Waters
#8Related, although a different use case: http://www.ampelmann.nl/
Re: Self-Stabilizing Boat’s Deck Is Always Flat, Even in Rough Waters
#9Exposed moving parts and salt water: Perfect bedfellows...
Not a lot moreso than you'd see in a hovercraft, which are currently used in some jurisdictions (including locally where I live) for the kind of rescue work this technology is initially aimed at. It's actually a pretty clever example of disruptive tech: it does almost everything a hovercraft does but is far closer to conventional tech and will likely be cheaper and lower maintenance.
Hovercraft don't have too many exposed moving parts. Just the two (or one) main rotors which also generate lift in most designs.
One of the reasons cited for hovercraft disappearing from many applications is the increased maintenance costs relative to normal ferries.
Externally this thing has far more mechanical joints than a hovercraft. The skirt on a hovercraft is just rubber-like material bolted together, there are no moving parts in there, it just inflates (and, yes, salt does eat away at it badly).
Salt can and does get brought down into the hovercraft but it shouldn't get brought into the engine directly.
Re: Self-Stabilizing Boat’s Deck Is Always Flat, Even in Rough Waters
#10I had this idea when I was like 6 or 7. Seems like it's always gonna be more trouble than it's worth.