cesarharada.com/blog

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.

Great illustration of Protei in Canadian Press

Protei "Alien" 5.1 by Rotterdam bridge

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

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

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

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

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.

Launch of Protei, oil spill cleaning open hardware sailing robot.

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

Protei is a fleet of Sailing Drones, developed primarily to collect Oil Spills under Open Hardware licensing. An oil spill drifts down the wind, Protei sails upwind to collect the oil. Everyone is welcome to join, contribute, modify, produce, distribute the design and share their findings.

My filming trimaran boat "featured" on instructables.com

My favorite website in the entire world is Instructables.com, I will never have enough enthusiasm to communicate how much I love this website!
Today, I received an email telling my inflatable filming trimaran got featured in the water section!!! YAY!!! 

Open_Sailing at Tokyo Midtown DESIGN TOUCH 2010

For japanese reader, please click on the image above, the definition is good enough to read the text :)　ありごと！

Currently Open_Sailing focuses its efforts on developing Protei, an Oil Spill Cleaning Sailing Drone with a long absorbing tail : protei.org. 

OPEN SAILING オープン・セイリング
海で生きる－。未来の暮らし方
国際海洋ステーションの開発

 人口の過剰増加や気候変動など、いま地球が直面している問題を克服し、魅力的な未来をつくりだすために、多分野の専門家が参加する国際的なプロジェクト「オープン・セイリング」。地球で生き続けるアイデアとして、海に浮かぶ生活・実験空間“国際海洋ステーション”の開発を提案しています。本展示では、食料供給や発電システム、常に安全な場所に移動できるナビゲーションシステムなど、衣食住のライフラインがどのようにつくられているかを紹介します。また、この大規模なプロジェクトに関する技術やアイデアは、すべてインターネット上で公開されており、誰でもプロジェクトに参加できるのもユニークなポイント。より良い未来を実現する方法として、資金を持たない人や小さなアイデアが採用される可能性を示すことで、新しいワークスタイルの提案もしているのです。

●「オープン・セイリング」とは？

「オープン・セイリング」は、海洋問題解決の研究・開発をテーマとする“国際海洋ステーション”開発プロジェクト。すでに、高性能の船舶と潜水艦が完成しており、現在は、そこで生活をしながら海洋研究ができる「小型洋上ラボ」の開発が進められています。

 ＜ステーションの各ユニットのキャプション＞

①「変形自在なユニット」（Instinctive Architecture）

生命体のように、天候条件や状況に応じて自らを最適な形状に再構成する建築ユニット。天候が良いときは構造体を広げ、嵐などの危険な状況では自身の構造をコンパクトにたたみます。

 ②「発電システム（エナジー・アニマル）」（Energy Animal）

 風力、太陽光、波などの自然エネルギーを再生する装置。天候により、効率的に取得対象を選定し、確実にエネルギーを供給し続けます。

③「自動ナビゲーションシステム」（Swarm operating system）

カスタマイズ可能なナビゲーション。設定された対象を探索する以外にも、天候や世界情勢などのリアルタイムなデータをもとに、移動エリアの選択をアシストします。

④「海上農園」（Ocean Cookbook）

海の上での充実した食料供給のために、最適な植物の栽培や調理方法など、“非常食”ではなく、海上だからこそ楽しめる“美味しい体験”を研究しています。

●オープンな“R＆D（研究・開発）サロン”

「オープン・セイリング」は、様々な専門家とのコラボレーションで進行しています。このプロジェクトで開発された技術やアイデアは、すべてインターネット上で公開されており、より良い研究・開発のための専門的な知識を持つ人は誰でも、世界中から参加することができます。

＜各写真キャプション＞

①「オープン・セイリングのスタッフ」（Photo image of 2008. up to 40 people are participating）

 ②「“ゴールデン・ニカ”を受賞」（Photo image of 2009.）

「オープン・セイリング」は、2009年度プリ・アルスエレクトロニカ「ネクスト・アイデアカテゴリー」で“ゴールデン・ニカ（最優秀賞）”を受賞。

③「小型洋上ラボ“リンツ・ヴァージョン”」（Image of 5 people floating lab）

アルスエレクトロニカ・フューチャーラボ「アーティスト・イン・レジデンス」のプログラムで制作した、5名用フローティング・ラボモデル“リンツ・ヴァージョン”。

④「メキシコ湾原油流出」（Photo of protei (2010) / photo of Mexico oil ）

今年4月に起きたメキシコ湾原油流出事故。オープン・セイリングのスタッフは、いま、この問題の解決に取り組んでいます。

⑤「プロテイ（Protei）」

最新のプロジェクト「プロテイ」は、“流出原油回収用無人帆船”。自然の力を利用して航海し、原油を検知すると自動で針路を変え、風下に移動する油をとらえます。また、衝突しても自動的に復元するため、荒れた海での継続作業も可能です。汚染物質に触れることなく除去作業ができる「プロテイ」。あなたもその開発に参加してみませんか。

ウェブサイトURL http://protei.org

Presenting Protei @ TEDxMidAtlantic

A few days ago, I was lucky to be on stage of TEDxMidAtlantic to present Protei, a technology in development I am working on with a bunch of brilliant people (especially Open_Sailing, randomwalks and V2_ folks).
Protei would be a Fleet of Oil Collecting Sailing drones. I just made this 7 minutes video that explains how it works (also on youtube if you want to share / embed / rate). I am now working on the collaborative website and the documentation to meet Open Hardware standards - long way to go :) The video of the talk may come up sometimes, meanwhile you have my explanation here :)

Download Hi-Quality movie (82Mb) | Full HD quality (1.2 Gb)

Protei-005

Also on youtube
http://protei.org

Protei-005 testing
20100911, Nabi Art Center, Seoul
By 
Open_Sailing | opensailing.net
randomwalks | randomwalks.org
at the Nabi Art Center in Seoul | nabi.or.kr
With the kind support of
V2_ | v2.nl
LA Bucket Brigade | labucketbrigade.org
Suzette Becker Toledano | suzettebecker.com

Protei-005's aim is to have the control on-board, no more remote controlling like 002, 003, the machine should sense its environment and make the decision where to go next. 

The test did not go so well, but we've learnt a lot on the way :
- the basic electronics (diagrams and pictures coming up soon on the http://protei.org) is pretty good, worked out of the water and provides a good extendable basis for future developments. 
- improved miniaturization
- simpler shape are easier to compute and evaluate (drag + turbulences) so that's also quite a good thing for simple dynamic engineering
BUT
the many cool things about Protei-005 is that we start to sketch a model for evaluation :) So, we have 
- wind sensor (direction + power) made from a Wiimote Nunchuck
- accelerometers on board, vibration sensors
- Xbee to send the information in real-time to a logging computer

We have a controlled environment so we can simulate wind, at the speed we like to. Hopefully next version we can do also waves and currents... :)
And even better, we have a webcam above the whole setting capturing the boat movement. So we have with Protei-005, not only a semi-autonomous machine but also a good indoor evaluation setup. Eventhough the test wasn't impressive (not bad for 3 days of work on a robot though), we have a lot of new infos. So in the close future, it is not only about the machine but it is about : 

The fabulous Kisoon !

That's how simple this machine is.

Diagram

The real thing 

tinkering 

wireless communication of sensor data to computer :)

Path analyzed with Proce55ing

Protei-003

also on youtube
20100817 in Lake Pontchartrain

http://protei.org
by Open_Sailing + randomwalks
Cesar Harada + Sey Min

thanks to
LA Bucket Brigade : http://labucketbrigade.org/
Suzette Toledano Becker : http://suzettebecker.com/
with the support of V2_ :  http://v2.nl/
Special thanks to Hunter Daniel, Mariko Toyoji, Shannon Dosemagen. 

Protei-001

Yesterday went testing Protei-001 on Lake Pontchartrain (New Orleans LA). 
What's so special for Protei-001? It is a Front-Steering Remote Control Sailing Boat  (the rudder is right a the front of the boat).
First tested without a tail, and with the tail (about 4 meters). Without the tail, the maneuverability is amazing ; with the tail, the control is pretty good, much better than  with a classical back rudder sailing boat. The aim is to make a powerfull yet simple semi-autonomous sailing boat with a high pulling capacity - in the case of Protei it is a long oil-absorbing tail that cleans an oil spill.

Also on youtube