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FishPi: Raspberry Pi Powered Autonomous Boat To Cross the Ocean
lukehopewell1 writes "The Raspberry Pi is a triumph in computing, and it's now set to become a triumph in robotics as one developer plans to build a model boat around it and sail it across the Atlantic Ocean, completely unmanned. It's codenamed FishPi and will see a model boat sail across the Atlantic all by itself save for a camera, GPS module, compass and solar panels."
The creator is posting updates on the build progress using a forum on his website.
"BitCoin"..."Raspberry Pi"...Bingo!
available on the cheap to a script kiddie near you
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Not to be confused with fish pie, which sounds nasty (or Norwegian)
I would have made a tiny robotic pumpkin carriage and called it a Pumpkin Pi. But that's just me.
Shouldn't this be an article of after they built it and it about to leave on it's trip? I could say hey I'm creating a rocket launch system and rocket guidance system using Raspberry Pi that will take my hamster not only into near earth orbit but also using GPS and compass gliding back to earth to my backyard all caught on it's internal camera. Oh and it's all solar powered. Call it RocketPi. Come on.... Anyone can start building anything wait for it ready to be tested before everyone goes ape over it.
Come on now. It's a nifty device, that's about it.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Woo hoo! I can't wait to pick the thing up on eBay after the Somali pirates get a hold of it! ;-)
I was wondering why a Kort Nozzle & Propeller were selected for propulsion. A wave propulstion system would be potentially more reliable for the long haul.
Just cough up the extra bucks and get a BeagleBone.
I hope he posts updates or enables live tracking..
That way we can try and sink it, I'll get the kickstarter project going.
get in the queue and get one ordered
and they come from farnell / rs / element14 from all over the world now.
some places are harder to get it to though
who where what when now?
Make it an underwater glider and give homeland security another panic attack.
get it?
A sailboat would be a real challenge.
Go to your local thrift store and get a used computer for $20.
I don't respond to AC's.
Ah yes, the weekly Raspberry Pi post.
One post a week is really that bad?
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
Why do you think they take 11 weeks to ship from England to the states ;)
...an old black and white movie called Mystery Liner, about a futuristic ocean liner that used some yet-to-be-invented technology to let it navigate the ocean autonomously. Always nice to see another sci-fi dream come true.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
They're probably already worried about it being used in quantity for drug running. How do you arrest someone that isn't there?
Ah yes, the weekly Raspberry Pi post.
One post a week is really that bad?
Especially since they seem to have drowned out the ARDWEEEEEENO posts?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Given that underwater gliders, usually with a fairly high degree of autonomy(if for no other reason than communicating underwater on teeny batteries is damn difficult), have been a thing in oceanography for some years, I imagine that team jackboots has either already had their panic attack, or is too dense to start now.
Incidentally, though: I'm actually surprised that they went with a boat design, rather than a glider design. Yes, submersion-proofing electronics isn't entirely trivial; but some of those gliders are crazy efficient, and have a convenient invulnerability to even the nastiest wind/waves/salt-spray forming a crust on stuff, by virtue of spending most of their life underwater...
If it wasn't for model boats they wouldn't have gotten the idea for the big boats... right?
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Go to your local thrift store and get a used computer for $20.
Power consumption 50 times higher, weighs 20 times more, and approx zero I/O ports. You'd do better arguing cats and dogs are the same.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
The FishPi can't carry much cargo, so it isn't that much useful for drug running at that size.
And even if some drug lord decide to fit it into one of the cheap plastic minisubmarine, you have a second problem:
The FishPi needs some way to get updated information about its waypoint (given changing weather conditions) and update its position to mission control (and upload nice webcam pictures). For the final fishpi, it's going to be made with a sattelite modem. If it was fitted into some drug running vehicle, it could be rather easy to spot and triangulate the modem.
Drug runner are much better of using onboard human brain power getting updates over FM radio.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I suspect that reverse engineering wouldn't be your problem(I can't remember if they've finished releasing all the board specs or not; but it isn't being treated as a zOMG super secret.); but obtaining and fabricating the parts at a price that wouldn't make a beagle-something, or even the guts of the fanciest Android device currently shipping a more sensible proposition...
I'm told that attempting to order cost-optimized SoCs from Broadcom in quantity 1 is even trickier and less fun than trying to solder several-hundred-contact BGA packages without specialist equipment...
Arduinos, by contrast, were through-hole DIPs for much of their life, with even the later or cheaper/smaller variants generally being mere surface mount, still with actual leads and everything.
Build something from other various products. How is hobby building anything more than consumerism?
Other than they both involved buying stuff, in just about every possible way. For one thing, hobby building usually requires thinking, innovation, and creativity, as well as re-use and a ton of other stuff consumerism finds absolutely abhorrent.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
I can understand the hull they're using for testing in a controlled area, but why not just build a crappy boat with hull and test with that. They won't be able to deploy this model to the ocean, something more like a submarine that travels on the surface would be a better design.
some of those gliders are crazy efficient, and have a convenient invulnerability to even the nastiest wind/waves/salt-spray forming a crust on stuff, by virtue of spending most of their life underwater...
The problem is that they spend most of their life underwater, which means that they're not going to get a lot of solar power. Also, stuff can still crust on them, it just won't be salt. It'll be life.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Nevermind glider design, they went with amounts to a rowboat or fishing boat hull. That thing is going to capsize during the first gnarly wave or wind gust, and will never right itself. I predict it will make it about 100 miles before it is never heard of again.
All in all, that concept is going to utterly fail for a number of reasons. I guess that's what happens when landlubbers try to go boating.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
I would do the same, but make two, and call it pumpkin Tau!
Oh... wait... what? That's not where you were heading?
rm -rf --no-preserve-root /
The closed-source bootloader is actually only licensed for use on the Raspberry Pi and it runs on the totally undocumented VideoCore hardware, so even if somehow you did manage to get hold of the components you couldn't legally build your own. I suspect it might also require a custom ROM bootloader that's only on the chips supplied to Raspberry Pi too or something.
Power consumption 50 times higher, weighs 20 times more, and approx zero I/O ports
Zero? Typically you're going to get either two serial ports and a parallel port, or you're going to get one serial port, maybe a parallel port, and at least a couple of USB ports. Lots of stuff has been bit-banged off of parallel ports. Your other points, however, are bang on. The appeal of R-Pi is that it packs a whole lot of power into a very small package and with pretty good power consumption.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Given that this is Broadcom we are talking about, I can't muster much surprise; but the idea of getting all worked up over having your own secret proprietary ARM bootloader seems kind of nuts, given how utterly common ARM bootloaders are... Not even executing on the part of the chip with a known architecture certainly is a classy touch, though...
I hope he has insurance on that ;)
Should have been called "Life of Pi"
These are just future slashdot titles.
Next time someone straps a Raspberry Pi onto some object (Dog, Cat, Bat, Grumpy (from Snowwhite)), you'll see it right here. Best thing, it doesn't even have to work.
In fact, Pi-ing is the next planking.
It's not so much the bootloader, but rather it's tied into the graphics SoC, and the parts needed to get that playing nicely.
Yes, it is "that bad" when the posts are blatantly sensationalized marketing pieces about random plans instead of completed projects. "Triumph in computing and robotics?" Give me a fucking break. You'd have to be completely ignorant of the history of embedded computing to write such absurdities.
130W solar cells to drive it, with no masts or sails.
Which means, under ideal conditions, a trolling motor pushing you across the Atlantic.
Good luck with that.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
By TFAs mention of 130 watts solar the boat will need to be quite a lot bigger than what I would quantify as a harmless toy reflected in the proof of concept work.
Please don't forget proper lights, active+passive radar reflectors and ais on the non-toy version. There are enough hazards out there to real people who are all required to keep a lookout at all times.
Instead of a larger boat with a large array, problems and power requirements to go with consider something creative... using wave motion, sails or ride out prevaling currents to keep the size down to where it would at least not be a danger to anyone.
Conformal coat all of your electronics before you cast them in toupperwear.
A boat that size must keep a watch at all times. Also there's the small issue of the COLREGS, which aren't simple to follow even for humans. It's a serious safety issue. Obviously not for the unmanned boat, but for other vessels that may come in its way.
Yes, it is "that bad" when the posts are blatantly sensationalized marketing pieces about random plans instead of completed projects. "Triumph in computing and robotics?" Give me a fucking break. You'd have to be completely ignorant of the history of embedded computing to write such absurdities.
Ahem. It runs Linux.
0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
At the rate that Raspberry Pi units are being made and shipped, this may very well be the first RPi that arrives on this side of the pond.
Don't get me wrong, I love the concept, I feel for the group that has designed the thing, I have just been frustrated at the lack of availability.
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They're probably already worried about it being used in quantity for drug running.
What a cool idea! If it really is cheap, it could do for cargo what the internet did for information. Only problem would be that irresponsible users would fill the ocean with junk.
This post may be a troll, but its dead on.
You know what would make the Raspberry Pi fucking awesome ... IF I COULD ACTUALLY BUY ONE AND GET IT SENT SOMETIME THIS YEAR.
Seriously, the Raspberry Pi is cool and all, and I'd LOVE to hear all about it and play with one ... but until they actually produce enough of them, please to be shutting the fuck up with stories about 'cheap computing for everyone' when all of 10 people actually have one in their hands.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
I really do not care... People act like the Pi is some revolutionary thing, the likes of which, have never been seen by human eyes. Whoop... De... Do... Go smoke your fish pie
"A 'person' is smart. 'People' are dumb, panicky animals and you know that."
So this guy is going to send a 20 inch long model boat across the Atlantic. Right.
The Liquid Robotics Wave Gliders already travel around the world's oceans autonomously. Liquid Robotics sent Wave Gliders from Hawaii to California, then up to Alaska and back. The Wave Glider looks like a surfboard, and trails an underwater "glider". As wave action moves the surfboard up and down, the gliders's spring-loaded vanes pull it forward. The glider has a powered rudder, the only moving part. The surfboard has solar panels, a computer, a GPS, a compass, and an Iridium satellite phone. Wave gliders have been through major storms without problems. Control is good enough that they generally stay within 50 meters of the programmed track. The U.S.Coast Guard classifies them as "floating debris", so they don't have to show lights. They're no more of a threat to ships than a loose surfboard.
The "Rasberry PI", after all, is simply a board which takes a quite good IC and brings out the pins to connectors. It's not like the Rasberry PI people developed the Broadcom BCM2835.
Because you'd still need a RPi to interface with android so you could have the GPIO and such needed for control. This meets the requirements, an android device alone does not.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Only problem would be that irresponsible users would fill the ocean with junk.
Too late...
Seriously. So far he's put some electronics into a Tupperware container and bought a model boat. Seriously. Made for a good laugh!
I mean all the best luck to him, but as far as a Slashdot story, hilarious!
Were I to do it seriously I would think about making several just in case. Heck it wasn't that long ago that real ships population by real people had a hard time making it across the pond without sinking.
Also on that thought, I would through away your silly model boat, and fabricate one out of something a bit more solid.
http://www.tv.com/shows/trailer-park-boys/going-off-the-rails-on-the-swayze-train-1070439/
This was the plot of a few Trailer park Boys Episodes. They had a model train running in the forest between the US and Canadian boarders.
. .
Yep, when I was in the Navy, my sub would come back from a three month patrol pretty much covered in algae and young barnacles. In the summer sunshine in King's Bay, the smell was... impressive.
Yes.
And we'll finally see the year of Linux robot. Who could think it would come before the year of the Linux desktop?
Rethinking email
You can get a model B. Ok, it is 50% more expensive, but is still cheap, still runs an OS that will help you, indead of making you suffer, and still has all those GPIO pins everybody is crazy about.
Rethinking email
Should have called it 'PiSeas.'
like phosphorescent desert buttons singing one familiar song
How is it possible to keep a water tight junction between the propeller and the hull? The propeller axis must cross the boundary somewhere. I have never understood how that works ...
This same problem applies to regular big ships as well as submarines.
Did you RTFA or go to the guys website? Its a PROOF OF CONCEPT hull- he's going with a trimaran or catamaran for the actual sea trials. This is going on a lake. Do you really think that somebody who's going to all this trouble is going to just GUESS what will work on a TRANS ATLANTIC journey thats never been done before?
Nobodies Prefect
Tidbits for Techs Technology Blog
Incidentally, mine was shipped today.
I can't find a way to get a Model B.
I can find a way to sign up for a list saying I'm interested in getting one eventually, but that's it.
They don't even provide an estimated time. And they're not taking orders.
So it's not like 'We're backordered, will ship as they come in'. It's more like 'We hope to get more someday!'
It's the same thing at both Farnell and RS.
Bah! I'm waiting for "3D printers".
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Thing is, for what it's doing, a $0.50 microcontroller would be sufficient.
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If FPGA was a good choice as GPU, I think Nvidia, ATI, and co would have figured that out by now.
Karma: Poor (Mostly affected by lame karma-joke sigs)