Design of autonomous surface vehicle

• Main Author: Ng, Gerald Yu Fan
• Other Authors: Xie Ming
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Robots
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/167118
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Autonomous surface vehicles (USVs) have gained importance recently due to their potential for various. However, designing a reliable and efficient autonomous surface vehicle poses many challenges. In this report, the team present the approach to designing software and hardware components of the WAM-V Unmanned Surface Vehicle (WAM-V USV), including cameras for colour object detection, image stitching, a waterproof box holder, and a ball launcher module. The primary objective of this project is to design software capable of using stitch the output of multiple different cameras pointing in a different direction to one image, track objects that have a single colour, design a waterproof box holder and ball launcher module to be used in the 2022 Maritime RobotX Challenge. The USV must be able to track the object's location in each image, design and fabricate mounts for waterproof boxes for the USV and design a ball launcher module. Once the initial design was complete for the hardware part, a physical part was constructed and tested to ensure it could hold up to the limit. This allowed the hardware to fine-tune to ensure the waterproof box was secure. The final design of the software can stitch two images with a chessboard as the arbitrary point and then use the output to track an object with a specific colour easily. The hardware must also be designed and proven to hold enough weight to support the different equipment onboard the USV. The project results demonstrate the potential of USVs in specific environments, such as detecting objects like lifebuoys for search and rescue missions, and the effectiveness of the design approach used in this project. The final design of the USV met the competition's requirements, demonstrating the planning system's effectiveness and the integration of the various hardware and software components. The report concludes with a discussion of the project's successes and limitations and provides recommendations for future improvements to the USV.