Finite Element Analysis (FEA) on Autonomous Unmanned Surface Vehicle Feeder Boat subjected to Static Loads

Abstract

Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) has many roles in various maritime fields. In Indonesia, many fish farmers still do the process of feeding fish manually using human labor. For fish farmers who have a more extensive pond can only sow fish feed on the edge of the pond, so that fish feed cannot be evenly distributed to the middle of the pond. This autonomous surface vehicle feeder boat is made as a solution to the problem of fish farmers who have a large pond size in fish feed distribution more evenly. Fish feeding is done automatically by an autonomous surface vehicle feeder boat with a fish feed capacity of up to 8 kg. The autonomous surface vehicle feeder boat is equipped with an ultrasonic sensor that is connected to a microcontroller to move the boat steering wheel to turn when a collision occurs with a pool boundary. The autonomous surface vehicle feeder boat has two control modules, which are moving automatically or manually using a remote control. Users can change the settings of this module from the remote control as needed. The hull used is the catamaran hull type. Catamaran hull was chosen because it has a good level of stability. Hull construction on this boat must have the strength that can sustain all the burden on the boat. Therefore, in this paper, the hull design of the boat tested with balsa wood material uses the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) method to determine the strength of stress, strain, and displacement that may occur using 3D mechanical design. Static loading is chosen in the hull design test method. This test analysis is used to determine whether the design with the specified material can be made.