Autonomous Surface Vessel based on a Low Cost Catamaran Design

Santiago Puente, Francisco Candelas, Fernando Torres and Dzmitry Basalai

Physics, Systems Engineering and Signal Theory Department, University of Alicante,

Carretera De San Vicente s/n, 03690,San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain

Keywords:

Marine Robotics, Autonomous Surface Vessel, ASV.

Abstract:

Nowadays, Robotics is increasing its importance for the marine environment in our society. It allows to

perform surveillance and data sampling tasks reducing the current cost of these tasks. This paper presents the

design of a prototype of an Autonomous Surface Vessel (ASV) based on catamaran shape. It uses the screw

theory for the propulsion system, which provides high manoeuvrability to the vessel. Furthermore, the parts

of the ASV are designed to be printed by a RepRap 3D printer. This gives ﬂexibility to check the performance

of the vessel. Also the software control scheme of the vessel is presented.

1 INTRODUCTION

Among the last years, a research focus in Au-

tonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) has emerged

(Russell B. Wynna, 2014) (Salimzhan A. Gafurov,

2015), and the marine environment is becoming in a

good ﬁeld for research in autonomous robots. Not

lot of research have been performed in Autonomous

surface vessel (ASV), but this research area is becom-

ing more popular because the necessity to understand

marine environment, not only underwater environ-

ment, although surface one (Ferri et al., 2015). Nowa-

days, the coordination of both approaches, underwa-

ter and surface one, allows to improve the global

understanding of the marine environments (Roberts,

2008). There are a lot of research groups that are de-

veloping their own ASV to be used for testing sce-

narios and algorithms (Pascoal et al., 2000). The ma-

jority of that type of vessels are mainly designed for

observation and sampling different parameters of the

environment (Manley, 1997) (Caccia et al., 2007).

There are a large number of new ASVs that are

single hull or catamaran shaped, that provide good hy-

drodynamic characteristics. Some of them provide a

different shape, which allows a better maneouverity

(ula Nad et al., 2015). In this paper, a mix among dif-

ferent shapes and control systems is provided in order

to design and build a new prototype of ASV. This pa-

per presents a catamaran shape vessel with an screw

propulsion which allows it to have a great maneuver-

ity in any direction. Furthermore, another character-

istic of the ASV designed is that the hull and others

parts of the vessel are built using a 3D printer, what

reduces considerable the cost against other manufac-

turing techniques, and allows fast check of the vessel

parts.

Next, in Section 2, the design of the ASV proto-

type is described. In Section 3 the software architec-

ture of the ASV is presented. The construction results

of the ASV are shown in Section 4. Finally, in Section

5, the conclusions are shown.

2 DESIGN OF THE

AUTONOMOUS SURFACE

VESSEL

The prototype proposed is a vessel based on a catama-

ran design. It uses two screw traction system (Hunt,

2003) for its propulsion. Another advantage of the

presented design is that it is able to move on differ-

ent types of ﬂuids, due to it’s propulsion system. That

point provide more ﬂexibility to operate in areas with

low level of water, or when a operation starting from

shore is necessary. Furthermore, it allows the ves-

sel to stabilise in any position and provides great ma-

neouverity. Other important aspect of the vessel de-

sign and implementation that has been considered is

the low cost of the vessel and the refurbishment of its

parts. In order to accomplish that objective, ﬁrst the

hull and components of the vessel havebeen modelled

using FreeCad (Falck and Collette, 2012), which al-

low to design all the parts in a fast way. Moreover,

this design enables us to print the model in a RepRap

printer (Jones et al., 2011) nearly directly. The model

452

Puente, S., Candelas, F., Torres, F. and Basalai, D.

Autonomous Surface Vessel based on a Low Cost Catamaran Design.

DOI: 10.5220/0005987404520457

In Proceedings of the 13th Inter national Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO 2016) - Volume 2, pages 452-457

ISBN: 978-989-758-198-4

has been divided in small sections in order to enable

the printing by using a popular standard 3D printer

with a small working area.

The obtained prototype has a 600mm of length,

450mm of beam and 400mm of heigh. The catama-

ran is supported on two hulls of 600mm of length.

These hulls compose the main part of the ASV. They

are used like the basement of ASV and for storage

the power supply and required sensors for the possible

missions. Figure 1 represents the 3D model of the hull

with the division required to print it by the 3D printer.

The same happens to the parts of the ASV that are

greater than 200mm, which is the biggest print size

that allow the printer used.

Figure 1: Hull and parts for 3D printer.

Other part of the vessel is the propulsion system

which is based on the screw theory. The ASV pro-

posed has two propellers in screw shape which allows

to control the movement of the vessel in any direc-

tion according the rotation direction and speed of each

motor (Figure 2). The movement of the vessel is gen-

erated when port motor and starboard motor gener-

ate a forward direction thrust. Each motor generates

a rotation r

and r

with provide the forces F

and

respectively, which moves forward the vessel. If

both, port motor and starboard motor, rotates in back-

ward direction, generate a rotation r

and r

which

provide the forces F

and F

respectively, moving the

vessel backward. It is possible generate a yaw rota-

tion movement with stable holding position by using

a combination of different speeds for port and star-

board motor.

The port and starboard motors are design to be

ﬁt inside a case, with a gearbox, bearings, and the

necessary seals for avoiding water to ﬁll in the motor

space (Figure 3). When the motor rotate, it gener-

ates a movement in the gearbox which increase the

torque to move the case. This case acts as a propeller

thanks to it has a screw shape in its outside face. The

two sets of motors and gear-boxes have been obtained

from cheap battery screwdrivers. Furthermore, in the

front part of the case, a tube has been used to hold

the case to the hull of the vessel, and wires to the mo-

tor are contained in this tube. This tube has a bearing

around it to allow the case to rotate with the motor

axis and leaving the motor static. Thanks to this de-

Starboard

motor

Port

motor

Figure 2: Propulsion vectors system for vessel movement.

sign, it is not necessary to drive any mechanical trans-

mission of movement from the vessel to the propeller.

Besides, only two wires to give the power to the mo-

tor are necessary from the vessel to the propeller. This

simpliﬁes largely the mechanical design. The case

and the connectors are designed to be printed using

the 3D printer.

Motor Gearbox

Bearing and sealing Bearing and sealing

Wires

Tube

Figure 3: Port and Starboard motor design.

After the design of the ASV was performed, the

control and software architecture of the system were

detailed. The designed vessel uses the control scheme

architecture shown in Figure 4. The architecture is di-

vided in two main parts: base control station and on-

board control system. The base control station uses

a Laptop as main control core. it is used for high

level veseel control and general acquisition. It com-

municates with a Arduino board through a serial-USB

port which provides the communication thought Xbee

module with the onboard control system. The main

core of the onboard control system is a phone. A

Android based mobile phone, which, which is used

to provide GPS coordinates to obtain the location of

the vessel in any moment. Furthermore, it provides

the intelligence embedded in the ASV. The use of a

Autonomous Surface Vessel based on a Low Cost Catamaran Design

453

mobile phone provides low cost sensors, communi-

cation system and computation power. Furthermore,

the phone is used to calculate current destination az-

imuths and distances between two locations points.

To communicate with the base control station, a XBee

module is used, which is connected to an Arduino

ADK. The Arduino ADK receives data from phone

and transmits it through Xbee module to base con-

trol station. This communication is in both senses. A

XBee module based on technologies such as Zigbee

or 802.15.4 provides a line-of-sight range larger that

other radio options like WiFi (Lee and Lin, 2016).

Furthermore, XBee communication solves the prob-

lem. This solves the problem of using GSM commu-

nication has with places with low or null coverage. In

addition, the Arduino ADK provides communication

with motor driver board to control motor operation

according to required trajectory. A high efﬁciency

VNH5019 motor driver based on MOSFET from ST

Microelectroncis has been used, which allows to con-

trol the current and speed of the two motors, port and

starboard ones, by means of PWM signals. The con-

trol signal is generated using a PWM signal as ref-

erence. The motor driver allows the control of both

motors, the port and starboard ones.

LapTop

Arduino

Mega

Xbee

module

XBee

module

Arduino

ADK

Phone

Motor

driver

Port

motor

Base control

sta!on

Onboard control system

Starboard

motor

Figure 4: Architecture control scheme of ASV.

3 SOFTWARE SYSTEM

The software system has two main modules, one in

the base control station and the other in the onboard

control system. The base control system has to per-

form the following main task, as shown in Figure 5:

• Receive current location information (longitude,

latitude, speed, accuracy, bearing, altitude) from

onboard control system.

• Sending target trajectory information to the on-

board control system.

• Show vessel information in the user interface.

• Interact with the user to process his commands.

The information from the vessel is received by the

XBee module and passed to the Arduino, whose only

task is to validate and retransmit the information to

the laptop, which is the responsible of processing it

and showing in the user interface.

Arduino ADK

& XBee

Show ship

informa!on

Receive current

loca!on

Send target

parameters

Interact with

user

Calculate

trajectory

User interface

Figure 5: Software base control station scheme.

Onboard control system has to perform the next

tasks that are represented in Figure 6:

• Establish connection between onboard control

system and base control .

• Obtaining current location information (GPS co-

ordinates).

• Computing current navigation parameters: longi-

tude, latitude, speed, accuracy, bearing, altitude.

• Receiving trajectory information from base con-

trol system.

• Calculate orientation and thrust to the target.

• Send onboard information to base control system.

• Control the motors to perform achieve the target.

Arduino ADK

& XBee

Phone

Obtain GPS

coordinates

Receive target

parameters

Send onboard

informa!on

Compute current

loca!on

Calculate thrust

& orienta!on

Generate motor

reference

Motor Driver

Port & starboard

motor control

Figure 6: Software onboard control system scheme.

ICINCO 2016 - 13th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics

454

These tasks are performed by the phone and by

the Arduino ADK. The current location information

and the required orientation and thrust of the vessel to

achieve the target location is computed by the phone.

It uses information from the base control station and

from its own sensors. The information obtained is

transmitted to the Arduino ADK, which has to send

the onboard information to the base control system

and has to generate the control signals for the motor

driver.

3.1 User Interface

The user interface has been programed by using Mi-

crosoft Visual Studio, providing a Windows applica-

tion to control the ASV. It is located in the base con-

trol station. The application allows the control of the

ASV in two modes: manual and automatic. In man-

ual mode, the operator controls each motor directly.

While the application is in automatic mode, the oper-

ator sends geographical references through a map and

the onboard control system perform the control of the

ASV to reach the target reference.

The user Interface for the ASV is shown in Figure

7. The parts of the interface are:

1. Received data: Field for received data from on-

board control system (longitude, latitude, speed,

altitude, accuracy, angle, etc) .

2. Operation mode: It allows user to choose type of

operation of ASV(automatic or manual).

3. COM Port: Field for selecting the serial port in

which is connected the Arduino Mega. It allows

user to stablish or not communication between

user interface and Arduino.

4. Map: Field to display the current position in a

map. The map is obtained from Google Maps us-

ing the location of the vessel.

5. Field of operation in different modes (Auto

Mode/Manual mode) and adjust the PID parame-

ters. It allows to send information to onboard con-

trol system through Arduino ADK (latitude and

longitude of desired point) based on the opera-

tion parameters like: PID adjustments, control-

ling commands of ASV in manual mode. Further-

more, it allows to receive information from on-

board control system (azimuth, distance)

6. Speed motor manual monde: Field to display

graphs of location in manual and automatic mode

(speed and azimuth).

7. Debug information: Field for debugging and fu-

ture instalation of a webcam in the ASV.

3.1.1 Manual Mode

The manual mode is one of the working modes of the

ASV. In this mode the user can control the vessel with

the control shown in Figure 8. This mode have two

working ways. Fisrt, the ASV control of the trajec-

tory, where the user can control the direction of the

movements of the vessel. Second, the direct motor

control, where the user can control the speed of each

motor of the vessel. Furthermore, in the second mode

the user can connect or disconnect each motor inde-

pendently.

3.1.2 Automatic Mode

The automatic mode. Figure 9 shows the layout of

the interface that allows user to input commands for

the automatic mode. In this mode the target point and

the speed required have to be indicated by the opera-

tor. These information can be introduced directly or

by clicking in the map. The automatic mode a frame

shows the azimuth required to achieve the target loca-

tion and whole distance to it.

3.1.3 PID Adjustment

The vessel on-board system has one PID controller to

control motor speed based on information provided

by the based control system. The vessel has other in-

dependent PID controller to generate trajectory refer-

ences and transform them to thrust and azimuth re-

quired by on-board control system. Figure 10 shows

a interface form that allows user to specify the param-

eters K

, T

and T

of each PID controller.

4 CURRENT RESULTS AND

FUTURE WORK

The result of the work presented in this paper is an

ASV (Figure 11) which a great manoeuvrability and

an interface which provide the operator a good control

of the system.

The ASV has been tested in laboratory environ-

ment to check that all part of the ASV responds prop-

erly. All the parts of the vessel have been printed

and assembled, adding the electronics components

and motors to the system. The communication sys-

tem has been tested with good results and the motors

responds properly to user commands. Furthermore,

the waterproof and buoyancy of the ASV has been

checked with positive results. The next phase will be

to check the vessel on water environment, lake or sea

to perform a real task.

Autonomous Surface Vessel based on a Low Cost Catamaran Design

455

RECEIVED DATA

REQUIRED VALUES

Add Markers On Map Add Route Del Markers

Set Destination Coordinates From Map by Click Lat = 38,3594ºN Long = 0,4755ºW

SPEED MOTOR MAN MODE

Autonomous Surface Vessel (ASV)

Auto Mode

Manual Mode

PID Adjustment

AUTOMATIC MODE

Lat =

Long =

Speed =

[m/s]

38.3594º

-0.4755º

0.0 [m/s]

Values

Current

START POINT

AZIMUTH DISTANCE

Start point Lat = 0 º

Start point Long = 0 º

GPS Start Point

Current azimuth = 359,32 º

Target azimuth = 360 º

Whole distance = 0 [km] 0[m]

Passed distance = 4266 [km] 842,6 [m]

PHONE CONNECTION Connected

GPS ENABLE = TRUE

GPS Status = OUT OF SERVICE

Current Lattitude = 38.3592 º

Current Longitude = -0.4906 º

Current speed = 0 [m/s]

GPS Time = 26.07.2015 21:59:57

Altitude = 138 [m]

Accuracy = 32 [m]

Angle = 0 º

0:0:50 0:1:40 0:2:30

t[h:m:s]

Cur

Target

3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

Speed [m/s]

0:0:50 0:1:40 0:2:30

t[h:m:s]

DEBUG INFO

VIDEO CAM

OPERATION MODE

AUTOMATIC MODE

MANUAL MODE

COM PORT

DisconnectCOM35

Figure 7: User interface.

CONTROL OF INDIVIDUAL MOTOR

Auto Mode

Manual Mode PID Adjustment

MANUAL MODE

TRAJECTORY CONTROL

USV Trajectory control

Loading Dependency Speed

[%] [%]0 0

Separate motors operation

Port motor

Starboard motor

Speed

[%]0

Direct DirectReverse Reverse

Figure 8: User interface: Manual mode.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The designed ASV prototype provides a different ap-

proach from the existent vessels. It is focused in pro-

viding great manoeuvrability and reducing the costs

of building the parts of the vessel by using a low-cost

3D printer. Also, components including motors and

electronics are cheap and easy to ﬁnd. Another ad-

vantage of the presented design, as was mentioned be-

fore, is that it can move in different types of surfaces.

This advantage allows the vessel to start a operation

mission from the shore.

One of the main problems of this prototype was

the necessity of dividing the model of the vessel in

several parts to allow us to print it. This could be im-

prove using a bigger 3D-printer that allows us to print

more than 1000mm length prototypes to be printed.

REQUIRED VALUES

Auto Mode Manual Mode PID Adjustment

AUTOMATIC MODE

Lat =

Long =

Speed =

[m/s]

38.49999º

-45.98789º

7.6 [m/s]

Values

Current

START POINT

AZIMUTH DISTANCE

Start point Lat = start_lat º

Start point Long = start_long º

GPS Start Point

Current azimuth = cur_az º

Target azimuth = target_az º

Whole distance = whole_dist

Passed distance = passed_dist

Figure 9: User interface: Automatic mode.

THRUST: PID ADJUSTMENTS

Auto Mode Manual Mode

PID Adjustment

SETTINGS CONTROL

Current Values

AZIMUTH: PID ADJUSTMENTS

Current Values

Figure 10: User interface: PID adjustment.

ICINCO 2016 - 13th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics

456

Figure 11: Final prototype of the ASV.

The long distance radio systems allows an auto-

matic or manual operation of the vessel. Furthermore,

in the automatic mode the vessel has autonomy to ar-

rive the target point. Another important aspect of ves-

sel is the motor design. It presents a simple and robust

mechanical structure.

The ASV presented here is a fully equipped plat-

form suitable for many marine research tasks. For de-

veloping speciﬁc research the required sensors can be

added. Moreover, to perform more complex task, a

high level control system is required. It will allow the

operator to indicate the desired task. We are working

to improve this point now.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research leading to these result has receivedfund-

ing from the Spanish Government (DPI2015-68087-

R) and Valencia Regional Government (PROME-

TEO/2013/085).

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