Developers who are familiar with the Ardupilot open source platform know that it can be applied not only to drones, but also to unmanned vehicles, fixed wings, submersibles, etc. Today we will introduce to you an unmanned ship based on the Ardupilot platform - " Noah (2022 model) ", which not only has a fast driving speed and a long battery life, but also has 4G remote control, waypoint planning, video return and other functions, which can be applied to various development scenarios.
An unmanned ship based on the Ardupilot platform - Noah
Compared with the old "Noah", what improvements have been made?
1) The brushless thruster MOT-P75 power system is adopted, and with the support of the 6S battery, it can burst out a thrust of 15kg.
2) The 4G version expands the image-digital integrated module mini homer to realize multi-vessel networking and long-distance real-time telemetry; and adds a 4G communication module to realize remote control.
Applicable to various development scenarios
1) Visual river patrol, add other sensors for hydrological monitoring, early warning and alarm of water status, etc., to achieve high-frequency data collection.
2) Instead of personnel to complete various tasks such as water quality sampling, water quality monitoring, hidden pipe investigation, flow velocity and flow measurement, and water surface cleaning, and transmit data and image information back in real time, it can minimize the safety hazards of personnel working on water and improve work efficiency.
3) It is used in scenarios such as river channel and underwater topographic mapping and water quality detection. my country is rich in water resources and the total area of the waters is vast. The workload of topographical surveys, water quality testing, and cleaning of floating objects on the water surface in these waters is huge, and manual methods cannot meet the work needs.
The Noah (2022 model) unmanned ship mainly has two configurations, the basic version and the 4G version. The details are as follows:
basic version
Version features :
1) 2.4G radio remote control communication
Use the remote control, which is also a common communication control method, the remote control distance can reach 300~500m in the outdoor open space.
2) Digital communication
Use the digital transmission module to communicate with the computer ground station software, so as to realize route planning, pointing and navigation, etc.; the distance in the outdoor open space can reach 300~500m.
3) It can realize functions such as manual control, waiting, one-key return, one-key unlock/lock, dot mode, and automatic cruise.
4G version
The 4G version adds a Raspberry Pi 4B onboard computer (ubuntu20.04 system), a 200W high-definition camera, a mini homer image-digital integrated module, and a 4G module to the basic version.
New features :
1) Telemetry communication
Using the mini homer image-digital integrated module to communicate with the computer ground station can realize real-time high-definition video transmission, route planning, pointing and navigation, etc. The remote control distance in open space can reach about 1km.
2) 4G mobile network communication
Using the 4G module to communicate with the computer ground station software can realize real-time high-definition video transmission, route planning, pointing and navigation, etc. Indoors and outdoors where there is a mobile network signal.
3) Dronekit programming control development
The 4G version of "Noah" is equipped with an on-board computer Raspberry Pi 4B, which integrates Dronekit-Python (a library for Python to control unmanned ships), and can realize autonomous control of unmanned ships through Python script development.
4) Multi-unit network control
Multiple 4G version unmanned ships can be controlled through the mini homer network (up to 8 units), and can also be controlled through the 4G network. In order to realize the unified dispatching of the ground station.
If you want to know more, welcome to leave a message at the end of the article to communicate~