Roboboat


	Videos mpg: boat functions (1,400KB) mpg: catching fish (490KB) mpg: releasing fish (677KB)

	Pictures My quick and dirty data acquisition boat built during high school. Everything was manually operated with a 4-channel radio transmitter. Even though this boat wasn't a robot, it did provide a starting point for many creative uses of switches, servos, electric motors and gearboxes. I had one holiday break to design, build and test this boat for a high school biology class.

	The front of the boat had a yellow water pump capable of collecting water samples. The mechanism for this pump came from a battery powered electric water gun. I strapped the gun to the top of a servo and when the servo turned the gun would come into contact with some carefully placed electric switches to start or stop the water pumping.

	Using my existing RC toy truck, I strapped the chassis to the top of a couple layers of Styrofoam and replaced the rubber wheels with paddle wheels. When I first tested the paddle wheels water ended up splashing all over the boat. Not a good thing for the electric motors and switches. My quick fix was adding a tape coated cardboard cover over the paddle wheels to contain the splashing. The drive motor for the paddle wheels was capable of forward and reverse using a mechanically actuated speed controller.

	The original servo used to steer the car was used for steering a rudder instead (seen here on the lower left side) Note: the boat in these pictures is sitting on a Coleman cardboard box which of course isn't part of the boat.


	Here's some samples collected from the crane net. Unfortunately, I don't remember what these things are called.

	Here's a Hydra catching food with its tentacles.

	Some type of segmented larvae. Imagine that this is the type of stuff swimming around us when we jump into a lake or pond.