An Open-source Autonomous Vessel for Maritime Research

As autonomy becomes increasingly prevalent in the maritime industry, students entering the field will need to receive advanced training in this area. To address this challenge, this work details efforts to develop an independently deployable autonomous vessel (the AG-0) which is generated through combining existing open source resources. The vessel can be used as a lowcost solution for researching and teaching autonomy in the maritime environment and can also be used as an autonomous vessel to perform scientific research in inaccessible areas without requiring experience with coding or autonomy. Without the sensor package for scientific research, the vessel costs below $500 and can be built by students with limited technical knowledge. A first-iteration vessel is generated by engineering students and faculty before being given to undergraduate environmental science researchers. The performance of the design is evaluated by these non-engineers for both function and operability. Their recommendations are detailed along with design and construction information.