A ‘Smart Buoy’ is a small autonomous marine vehicle that can be controlled by a user to navigate to GPS coordinates and has the ability to maintain the desired location. There are many industrial, commercial, scientific, and recreational applications for this technology; however, for sailing specifically, there is a frequent need to adjust buoy locations as prevailing winds shift throughout a day of racing. Currently in the sport, the race committee must send boats out to manually adjust buoy locations which is time consuming and labor intensive.

The goal of this project will be to develop a prototype of a ‘smart buoy’ specifically for sailboat racing, as well as develop a technology and concepts that can be applied to other autonomous marine vehicle applications. The resulting prototype must be durable and able to operate for an entire day of racing, withstand environmental and surface conditions, be easy to control and set up, and follow coast guard laws and regulations.

Project Name

Smart Buoy

Project Number

P18250

Start Term

2175

End Term

2181

Faculty Guide

Mark Indovina, George Slack

Primary Customer

Mike Ritenour and Glenn Steed

Sponsors

Mike Ritenour and Glenn Steed (equipment donations)

Boeing through MSD ($900)

MSD ($500)

Planning & Execution

Project Photos and Videos

Imagine RIT

Gate Reviews

Problem Definition

Systems Design

Preliminary Detailed Design

Detailed Design

Build & Test Prep

Subsystem Build & Test

Integrated System Build & Test

Customer Handoff & Final Project Documentation (Verification & Validation)