WAHOO 2.0: Weatherproof acquisition for headless onboard operations

Abstract

To effectively design, deploy, operate, and retire its fleet of boats, the U.S. Navy requires data-driven testing and evaluation of 50-foot boats throughout the lifecycle of the boat design. This project involves the development of an inexpensive, stand-alone instrumentation box capable of gathering motion, GPS, and engine data for the evaluation of boats and boat designs used by the U.S. Navy. Analysis of the data will reveal causes of failures, human and vehicle exposure to sea conditions, and leading indicators of boat failure. The project builds on a prototype developed during the summer of 2015. Entitled 1.0, the prototype consisted of a BeagleBone Black microcomputer and a 3DM-GX3 miniature inertial sensor. However, the GX3 sensor alone costs $3,700, and the client requires a new system with more cost-efficient sensors. A successful design must cost less than $500 per unit without sacrificing data fidelity, and the code must be easy to access to allow tailoring of reports for mission-specific environments. The revised system, WAHOO 2.0, is being developed with the same BeagleBone microcomputer along with less expensive IMU and GPS sensors, which are attached to the microcomputer via a custom expansion board. The system utilizes a battery capable of powering WAHOO 2.0 for at least 24 hours. The system is housed in a waterproof enclosure with a clear lid to allow viewing of live status LEDs for cursory reporting of errors. The system will provide the user automatically-generated one-page summary reports based on the collected data, while also storing the raw data for more sophisticated analyses and providing the capability to add automatic tests to the system as needed.