RB&D Roboboat and Drone

The RoboBoat competition is an annual event where teams design autonomous boats to complete various obstacle courses. One of the obstacle courses is a Slalom maneuver, where there is a straight line of red and green alternating buoys. The boat will cross between each buoy until it reaches the end of the straight line. Another challenge is a find the path where buoys are scattered around a white buoy at the center. The boat must navigate to the white buoy in the center and return out of the area without hitting any of the colored buoys. The boat uses an onboard computer to process data gathered from a webcam and lidar. The additions from our team include a lidar, path planning, and boat to drone communication. The lidar is used to calculate the distance and angle from the boat to the buoys. There is also a webcam on the boat to detect the color of the buoys. With this information, the boat will be able to localize itself within the field of buoys and plan its path to complete the specific obstacle course while not colliding with the buoys. Besides water-based tasks, there is a raise the flag challenge that requires the use of a drone. This challenge requires both the boat and drone to autonomously communicate. The boat will send a control command to the drone to take off from the boat. The drone will then hover over the dock. Once over the dock, the drone will send video feed back to the boat for the on-board computer to analyze. The computer will analyze a seven-segment display and determine which number is being displayed. When the number is confirmed through image recognition, the boat will send a command for the drone to land. Depending on the number, the boat will push a certain button on the dock corresponding to the number displayed by the seven-segment display.