Large RC Boat for River Surveys

[surveyor]

Hi

I work for a company involved in environmental monitoring and am looking for a company to develop and produce a large remote control boat for river survey work. If successful the market for such a boat could be 10-30 units in my organisation.

I should admit I have no knoweldge of the RC boats world, my expertise is in river surveying!

The boat would be used with sophisticated sonar type equipment installed to measure water speed and depth and would need to be used in flood flows (high water speeds and turbulence) right down to low summer flows (water speeds below 10cm/sec)

To give an idea of the size of the boat required, it will need to be a minimum of 1.5 metres long and probably closer to 1.8-2 metres.

Here are some essential characteristics we would need:
- Top speed 5 metres/second
- Minimum speed as slow as possible! Sometimes we need the boat to travel very slowly and smoothly (say 5-10cm/sec)
- Excellent control at high and low speeds
- Endurance of at least 2 hours
- Instrument well - to fit the sonar gear (approx 25cm diameter by 20cm deep) recessed in hull and with bottom submerged approx 5-10cm in water
- Battery power (Lipo?)
- Twin props (guarded to prevent risk of injury)
- Internal hold (or deck box) to hold radio modems and RC gear/batteries etc
- Hull design that allows the sonar to remain submerged at all times (even at high speeds) and without entrained bubbles passing across it

If anybody can offer contacts worth talking to I would be very grateful.

Thanks for any hints or tips, Nick.

[arrow5]

I think you should add weight of equipment to be carried to your specs. Sounds interesting , sorry I cant help but I`m sure somebody on here can. Fresh or salt water ? Why li-po power? Why model boat ? Might be better to contact established RPV people, model boats could be a bit on the "tender" side.

[surveyor]

To add to my previous post, equipment weighs some 5kgs.

Boat would mainly be for fresh water, but we may need to venture onto estuaries.

LiPo batts as I believe they yield the most power for their weight. Keeping overall weight down is important as we will often have to launch with no slipway.

Thanks for suggestion arrow.

Nick.

[toesup]

I work for a company involved in environmental monitoring and am looking for a company to develop and produce a large remote control boat for river survey work.

You may find this thread (and the earlier one) of use ;)
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=851621

[Shaun Hendricks]

It can be done. Standard RPV would work as well but it can be done by 'hobbists' if you like.

You're probably looking at a fiberglass over foam Catamaran with dedicated 1/4 horse motors. River edge launch would be relatively easy even with Lead Acid cells. You just put them in their bays and plug them in before you push the boat out into the river. This would keep the overall weight light and give you a really long endurance.

Flat bottoms would give you almost no incursion of air but you'd have to have significant rudders to give you good directionality as the boat's actual shape wouldn't help much if it had flat bottoms.

There are plenty of boat designs that could do this but what you really need is to ask yourself what support level you are willing to bear. If you go with a Pro-RPV company, you'll get long term support and service. If you go with a hobbist, you'll get what time they can give you. You could also look in to building and maintaining them yourself. It wouldn't be that difficult of a boat design to make.

[ScottOram]

I could build something like that...... I built an 85 pound aircraft carrier that goes 10 knots, this is kid's play.

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

There were a lot of proposals here also... remember the Barrow boat thread?

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=673468

[windwarrior6682]

Just a thought on propolsion. Use a air plane eng and prop mounted like and air boat. And for hull design how about a a catimaran where the sonor and be mounted between the hull and eletronic mounter accross the the strut that keep the to hull together.

[mfr02]

A professionally designed and built item does have the advantages expressed above.
Give consideration to a modified kayak. With the person removed and replaced by remote control, batteries and drives, there should be plenty of payload potential left over for whatever is needed.

[steveciambrone]

Why do you need it remote controlled? If your intending to run it to certain GPS positions then you will need telemetry for needed feedback and control.

It may be easier to mount your sonar on a vessel of oportunity and just drive the boat via GPS, it will give you real time evaluation of data.

What kind of sonar is it, side scan, echo sounder?

If your intention is to minimize danger to personel during storms then you have to also take in to account the possible loss of a boat and all it gear. Cost of the asset.

Thanks
Steve

[EZILLA MAD]

I have one of those, but it is accually real easy to build. I used a canno with a electric trolling motor and the top speed was about 24 kph. It has a load cappacity of 90kg and I ran it with a novak esc ( I know you get a lot cheaper esc)with 2x 6v 40ah pb batts. I dont know how long it went befor dieing but I used it for 3 weekends to drop some bait and then charged it, I will give you the plans photos and some tips if you pm me with your e mail. You can ask any one at your lokal shop to build it, it is cheap and durable.