Paddleboard Robotic Bathymetry

[maxschwartziv]

Hi I'm Max. My wife and I sail in the gulf of California for half the year and work in Missouri the rest of the year. I would like to use a paddleboard + trolling motor + Pixhawk flight computer + humminbird sidescan transducer to make some depth maps with accompanying sidescan images. We scanned the Santa Rosalia marina so I would have some data to play with.

So far I have a python script that reads the depth data that pingmapper produces and generates a depth map geotiff. I'm using mapbox to host the tilesets. You get 50k tile requests a month before they start to charge.

Next step is to get the pixhawk hooked up to the trolling motor and start scanning some Missouri lakes/slow rivers.

We scanned the Santa Rosalia marina so I would have some data to play with. Check out he fishing boat graveyard in the north east corner.
https://www.droneboatfleet.com/08/santa-rosalia-marina

[CameronBodine]

Hi Max,
This is great stuff! Also very happy you found the PINGHub!

Have you already built the paddleboard drone? I would be interested for more info on that.

I haven't had a chance to look at your script yet, but the exports look great! I would be interested in incorporating into full version of PINGMapper if you are. Lemme know!

[maxschwartziv]

Paddleboard drone is a pile of parts in my parents basement right now. I hope to have something to test this weekend! If you can incorporate the depth map into pingmapper that would be amazing. I tried but it was beyond me. Also, I originally wanted to add a color coded depth map overlay onto the sidescan mosaic but I couldn't come up with a way to present it that wasn't visually confusing. I think 2 seperate images is best.

[CameronBodine]

Cool. Keep me posted on the drone. Check out Dan's resources, if you don't already know.

https://squirm.tech/maker-boat-basic-quick-start/

I will have a look at the code. It would be cool to make it a pip install so you maintain ownership. I could help guide you. Otherwise I can add directly to pingmapper and acknowledge your contribution.

[maxschwartziv]

I haven't seen this, thanks! I'll have to check out qgroundcontrol.