A semester of progress designing and testing an automatic electromechanical hydrofoil control system for the International Moth sailboat class. Code, components, and schematics all available here: drive.google.c...
So awesome! We will be attempting to implement something similar on our solar boat this year ( dutch solar boat ), recently found a very promising radar chip ( from Acconeer ).
Very good work, but you need to redesign the system on a bit different principle: - instead of potentiometer use contactless water distance measurement sensor - capacitive or radar-based. These are much more reliable and accurate. You can put two for redundancy. - add MEMS accelerometer and MEMS gyroscope to measure vertical speed and angles. This would significantly improve performance in challenging conditions, like high waves ride-through. - the processing cycle time should be less than 10ms for good reaction times and you need a really real-time processing. Perhaps Arduino is a bit too weak here, which has negative impact on performance.
I fly radio controller helicopters (big ones) and I thought, "He should put a gyro inline with the servo" and that would continuously alter the angle of attack without any input required.
@@gastonbarouille767 I know the vid shows an electrical one... I'm asking why they are doing it while it seems to have no benefits with a few (but important) drawbacks
Hi, thanks for the question. As others have mentioned above, software-enabled systems are generally considered to be more flexible to modify and capable of solving more complex control problems than a purely-mechanical approach. Just as aircraft control systems started out as purely-mechanical in the early 20th century, most modern aircraft controls are now software-enabled systems to improve the performance, stability, and efficiency of the aircraft in challenging conditions. Hydrofoils and sailboats are facing a similar, improved future. Of course, any early prototype, such as the one I made in this video, is likely to have limitations, especially when water and electricity are in close proximity. Improved fabrication techniques would resolve these simple challenges.
Electronic system with appropriate sensors can have much better performance than mechanical on waves - e.g. it will eliminate typical moth fails. It also allows "controlled take-off" e.g. less drag on small speeds and rapid take off when necessary speed reached. This will allow foiling with less wind, when standard moth will not take-off at all.
