Forrest Gump Jenny
by Yaz Nakayama
(Pelham, NY)
|
|
|
|
It's been a while but I built a second boat using the Cabin Cruiser plan as a base. Just like my last project ("Jaws Orca"), I modified the cabin and turn it into "Jenny" shrimp boat from the movie Forrest Gump. For this project, I decided to wet my feet into a GPS guided self-driving vehicle so I loaded a CAUV V5 Nano flight controller with an external GPS using Mission Planner as the ground station. I must tell you this has been an interesting journey. I was successful in building the boat and setting the system up. I've tested a few times in a nearby pond both using manual control (using regular RC transmitter) and later GPS guided control. This morning, I got ambitious and took it to an inlet of Long Island Sound near me. Though it was calm and a short enough mission close to the shore for GPS following, unfortunately it sank in the middle of the mission. My guess is that it caught a few large (relative to the boat) waves as it started to drift a bit away to reach the next way point. I should have known better but what can I say. I am already planning to re-build it. But this time, I am building it 2x the size so it can withstand waves better. Will keep you posted.
