A Remotely-Operated Shallow-Water Boat for Wireless Data Logging

Water quality data collection in shallow water areas can be a challenging task. Obstacles encountered in such environments include difficulty in covering large territories and the presence of inaccessible areas due to a variety of reasons such as a soft bottom or contamination. There is also a high chance of disturbing the test area while placing the sensors. To address these issues, a remotely operated shallow-water boat is being designed and developed at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi with the support of a NASA grant. The system transmits data wirelessly via a radio to a docking and control station in real-time. This paper describes the design and development of the boat, covers the process for selecting the major components, and discusses the problems being addressed to fully implement the system.