Development and Evaluation of a Low-Cost Autonomous Surface Vehicle for Environmental Measurement Tasks

This paper deals with the development of a low-cost autonomous surface vehicle as a flexible platform for a large variety of tasks. The vehicle was developed and build at Jade University and evaluated at Lake Bant in Wilhelmshaven. During designing phase, the drag resistance was calculated. Technical aspects will be presented. In evaluation phase the calculated drag was compared to the measurement results. Using this vehicle, a depth profile of the lake was recorded fully autonomous.