SensorBoat

My local creek has always been said to be contaminated, yet I still saw fish in the water, plants growing on the banks, and children sometimes playing in it. I wanted to figure out exactly what was "wrong" with it.

Using an Intel Edison, the Sparkfun Inventors Kit for Edison, and a Seeed Studio Grove Kit for Edison kindly provided by Hackster.io, I created this prototype project that still needs to be placed into a waterproof enclosure.

This project includes the Grove Temperature sensor as well as an accelerometer. The temperature sensor will detect the water temperature to make sure it is in the proper range for plants and animals. The accelerometer will be active to determine how fast the boat is moving, and when the motors are turned off the boat can be carried by the water and the accelerometer can tell how fast the water is moving. Additional sensors can be added at a later date.

The motors are controlled by the Sparkfun motor breakout, part number TB6612FNG. This powerful little chip can control two motors and my code is currently written to drive the motors using inputs from potentiometers, but can be improved later to use a phone's Bluetooth inputs.

Overall, this project is still a work in progress, especially with the waterproof enclosure that I hope to 3D print a prototype of soon and later manufacture it using strong plastic.

I hope this project can be used later on to collect useful data about creeks, rivers, and other bodies of water to improve the environment and save the earth.