Researchers Paul and John Scerri and their team at Carnegie Mellon University have developed an autonomous vehicle called Platypus that can be used for a wide variety of aquatic applications. One application we see customers struggle with is mapping small ponds.
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| Platypus getting fitted with a Lowrance HDS and transducer |
Recently, the Platypus development group teamed up with Tim Wood at Aquatic Edge Consulting and Contour Innovations to test the use of a Platypus for sonar data collection and bathymetric and vegetation mapping of a pond. They rigged up the autonomous vehicle with a small Lowrance HDS 5 and sent it into the waterbody.
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| Getting the data collection process going and testing while on the water |
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| A close-up view of Platypus |
They quickly acquired the data set recorded to their SD card, uploaded the .SL2 files to their account at http://www.BioBase.com and within minutes all of their files were done processing and could be merged into a full map. The pond map output looks great!
You can check out a video of the operation here: Platypus in action
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| Platypus gathering sonar data for BioBase |
Customers were happy, no one got wet, and the results speak for themselves. Great job guys!
If you have an innovative way of collecting data for processing with BioBase, let us know and we’d be happy to help!