Odysseus

Rationale:


Environmental sensing is increasingly important, with worries about 
pollution, climate change and its effects on wildlife. Sensor networks 
allow us to place sensors in the environment and relay observations back 
to base for use on the internet, in simulations and other applications.


For best results observations need to be made over a wide area over long 
period of time, and this poses two problems: how do we cover the area of 
interest without at a reasonable cost, and how do we power the sensors 
over their lifetime?



For aquatic environments, an answer to both questions is to deploy 
sensors on yachts. A yacht can sail around, allowing it to report on a 
larger area than a fixed sensor; it can also move using the wind, and 
can generate power using an impeller in the water or solar cells on the 
sails.



So far so good, but if we want yachts to act as sensors we have to be 
able to sail them in predictable ways, guiding them to explore the areas 
we're interested in, and avoid obstacles -- all without direct human 
intervention.




The project:


This project will demonstrate the idea of a yacht-based wireless sensor 
network for an aquatic environment. We will develop a computer-based 
control system for a radio-controlled model yacht, that encodes the 
operations yachts use to manoevre (reach cross the wind, tack into the 
wind and so on). We will look at tactics we can use to cover a given 
area, and demonstrate the project working on a local lake. We may also 
look at multiple yachts acting as a swarm, at sailing tat adapts to 
changes in conditions, and other issues.




The student:


To conduct this project you will need to be happy working at with 
low-level software, using Java and possibly some C/C++. The project also 
involves interfacing computer control to off-the-shelf radio control 
hardware, and developing control algorithms from descriptions off the web.