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Ride, Captain, Ride Aboard Your Arduino-Controlled Autopiloted Sailboat
arduino hacks, arduino mega, DC motor, gps hacks, hall effect sensor, misc hacks, motor controller, sailboat, transportation hacks Comments Off on Ride, Captain, Ride Aboard Your Arduino-Controlled Autopiloted Sailboat
[Jack], a mechanical engineer, loom builder, and avid sailor wanted an autopilot system for his 1983 Robert Perry Nordic 40 sailboat with more modern capabilities than the one it came with. He knew a PC-based solution would work, but it was a bit out of reach. Once his son showed him an Arduino, though, he was on his way. He sallied forth and built this Arduino-based autopilot system for his sloop, the Wile E. Coyote.
He’s using two Arduino Megas. One is solely for the GPS, and the other controls everything else. [Jack]‘s autopilot has three modes. In the one he calls knob steering, a potentiometer drives the existing hydraulic pump, which he controls with a Polulu Qik serial DC motor controller. In compass steering mode, a Pololu IMU locks in the heading to steer (HTS). GPS mode uses a predetermined waypoint, and sets the course to steer (CTS) to the same bearing as the waypoint.
[Jack]‘s system also uses cross track error (XTE) correction to calculate a new HTS when necessary. He has fantastic documentation and several Fritzing and Arduino files available on Dropbox.
Autopilot sailboat rigs must be all the rage right now. We just saw a different one back in November.
[Thanks Jeremy]
Filed under: Arduino Hacks, gps hacks, misc hacks, transportation hacks
