Development of a solar-powered small autonomous surface vehicle for environmental measurements

Nowadays, the use of autonomous surface vehicles has increased in popularity. Autonomous surface vehicles can be adapted to perform water quality measurements, water contamination and hazards detection, garbage collection, aquatic animal population control, shore control, and other applications. This paper shows the novel construction of a small solar-powered autonomous surface vehicle. The vehicle was manufactured of composite materials of natural origin. It was equipped with an electric engine powered by ultralight photovoltaic panel, and a set of sensors and actuators used for autonomous operation and measurements of such factors, as pH, turbidity, purity, and oxygen content in water. The investigations carried out have been divided into three main parts. First, the geometry of the proposed autonomous surface vehicle was modelled using computational fluid dynamics and optimal shape of hull and deck was determined. Then, a dedicated construction of the photovoltaic panel was developed and tested under real conditions. The maximum power generated was 41.7 W when solar radiation was 850 W/m2. The matched power related to the area of 1 m2 was higher by 9.7% – 34.3% compared to other tested market-available panels. Finally, simulations in the TRNSYS software were carried out to determine the operational parameters of the developed autonomous surface vehicle under different operating scenarios. Simulations showed that the operation scenario of the autonomous surface vehicle significantly affects its primary energy consumption due to the energy supplied from the grid to recharge the system after each day of operation. The change in location can increase the primary energy savings, since among the investigated locations the primary energy saving ratio varied between about 30 and 50%. The analysis pointed out that the developed construction of the solar-powered small autonomous surface vehicle is a really promising solution and can be considered as an addition or replacement to the actual available water quality monitoring systems.