cesarharada.com/blog

About Me

Cesar Harada (28) is an French-Japanese inventor and entrepreneur.
Cesar invented a ground-breaking sailing technology, a boat that changes shape, “Protei”. Originally developed to clean up the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Protei is an Open Hardware project now developed by an international community of scientists, engineers and designers for many other applications such as nuclear radiation sensing off Japan, plastic sensing in the Pacific garbage patch, red tide studies in Mexico and much more.
Cesar is also the general coordinator of the future International Ocean Station. Former Project leader at MIT, Cesar teaches Masters in Design & Environment at Goldsmiths University in London. Cesar graduated in 2009 from the Design Interactions course at the Royal College of Arts in London, his collaborative project Open_Sailing received the Ars Electronica Golden Nica award for the [NEXT IDEA].

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Protei Update #11: We are ready!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cesarminoru/protei-open-hardware-oil-spill-cleaning-sailing-ro/posts/86877

"Update #11: We are ready!

We've been around for almost 2 weeks in Rotterdam at the V2_ now, and we got our space set up, keys for everybody, internet connexion, a fridge for our lunches, a big table to work ect : the conditions to work !

This is Matthew Lippincot from Oregon - now studying in Swtizerland - working on our MEGA TABLE - to do large pattern cutting and large plastic sheet assembly. 

We have received our oil booms! Roberto Melendez and Piem Wirtz saying "YAY". May I say "LOL" even ? 

And we had an intense week of brain-storming and drawing : 

Here, Henrik Rudstrom, Logan Williams, Roberto Melendez and Qiuyang Zhou in the background. 

We have divided the team in 3 smaller groups to research shape-shifting hulls : 
1. Spine-based hull, moving around a flexible axe.
2. Hollow hull, actuated by it's surface. 
3. Pneumatic, entirely actuated by pressure transfers. 

That means that at the end of this week, you will see 3 mechanical principle prototypes coming along! Stay tuned :)

And this week, meet the wonderful Roberto Melendez!

 

 

Engineer 1 : Roberto Melendez (El Salvador, USA), Mechanical and Ocean Engineering , MIT. roberto@opensailing.net. Roberto, 21, is a student of Mechanical and Ocean Engineering at MIT. A native from El Salvador, he enjoys sailing, biking, windsurfing, fútbol and being outdoors in general. Thanks to Toni Nottebohm for the video. 

Get to know the Protei team on the people page.

Filed under  //  NL   Open_Sailing   Protei   Rotterdam  
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Protei "Alien" 5.1 by Rotterdam bridge

A week ago, we floated Protei 5.1 in Rotterdam by the famous bridge !!!

Protei 5.1 by Rotterdam bridge

We gave a nickname to this yet undocumented version : Protei 5.1 "Alien" after we took this picture :
Protei 5.1 [Alien]

Protei 5.1 is mostly transparent body, so we can things move inside. 

Protei 5.1, Rotterdam NL DSC_0279DSC_0395

Protei 5.1 is the baby of Piem Wirtz, Etienne Gernez, Henrik Rudstrom and Cesar Harada, all built for about $150 at the V2_  in Rotterdam, NL.


Protei 5.1 control box top detail DSC_0359

Protei 5.1 wasn't a truly functionnal prototype, but enabled us to :

  • - Combine Inflatable AND articulated hull (Protei 002 + 003).
  • - Test new Materials.
  • - Enhance a more compact version of the command box with suspended servos.
  • - Enhance the transmission cable path.
  • - Give a preview to the $400 backer of the type of Protei they will get.

    • It was great fun, we learnt a lot again but overall Protei 5.1 will be very useful for the whole Protei team coming this summer in Rotterdam to build the full-scale Prototype.

    If you want to stay updated with the progress of Protei, we recommend you to join the Open_Sailing Facebook group:) 

    Just as a reminder : there is only 5 days left to back Protei on Kickstarter. Thanks!

    Original Post on Kickstarter, copy on Protei/news.

    Filed under  //  sailing   Alien   Collaboration   Model   NL   Open_Sailing   Protei   Protei5.1   Robot   Test   V2_  
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