I just wanted to showcase how we (Tritonia Scientific) have been using the BlueBoat for shallow water habitat mapping in Western Scotland. We are using the Lowrance 3 in 1 transducer the gather side scan data and developed a payload structure. this allowed us to mount the Lowrance transducer in the middle of the Blueboat, giving us cleaner data.
It consists of 4 square aluminum tubes, 2 long ones joining the 2 cross brackets and 2 shorter ones across the aluminum tubes. On the two shorter tubes there is a quick release clamp that holds the transducer pole in place. The clamps allow us to lower the transducer further into the water and pull it up for safety when transporting the Blueboat. The central pole has also been used to attach go pros to it for photogrammetry work.
Next steps are to continue testing a new 4G set up and in the future we are hoping to add RTK and extra buoyancy in order to carry heavier payloads. I’ve included some images of the Blueboat in action as well!
It’s great to see the BlueBoat being useful for this, and it’s always fun to learn how the marine robotics community can adapt our vehicles and components to suit their use-cases. Thanks for sharing your implementation and indicative results!
Smart idea! I imagine if a longer term vehicle deployment was relevant the pole actuation could be motorised, but a quick-release is a great approach if you’re able to get hands-on at the start and end of each mission.
On the transport front, are you able to fold the hulls in at all, or do you just keep them folded out with the boat in the back of a utility vehicle or van?
Nice!
Out of curiosity, have you done any integration with the BlueOS onboard computer software, or are your additions currently just independent hardware modules that you collect data off afterwards?
Groovy! I like the orange hull fairings, and it looks like a lovely day out
A motorized pole transducer pole is definitely in the plan for the future! Hopefully it won’t be too complicated. As for transport we can either remove the pole and then hulls fold up nicely or transport it in our pick up truck with the hulls folded out.
We haven’t done any integration with BlueOS and not sure if we need to. The side scan sonar is just collected on an SD card on the chart plotter and the images for photogrammetry are collected using GoPros so SD cards again.
Let me know if you have any more questions. I’m hoping to keep updating this post as we keep adding and improving the blueboat!
