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Crossing the Atlantic

After all the testing and a successful maiden voyage on Lake Idroscalo, the Roboat was ready for a bigger journey. Actually, the Roboat’s trip across the Atlantic had more to do with being chosen as a Design99 contest winner. The only additional hardware required for the trans-Atlantic voyage was some well-placed cardboard and lots of styrofoam packing material and then it was off to Circuit Cellar headquarters to be photographed.

As you can see in Photo 1, the trip was successful. Although the Roboat’s Atlantic voyage was made via airmail, combining GPS and digital compass technology with parts such as the Motorola M68HC908GP20 can provide a world of opportunity when it comes to design projects.

Riccardo Rocca is a Senior Geophysicist with an oil company in Italy. He honed his skills in electronics while experimenting in his home laboratory. Riccardo particularly enjoys applying hardware and software in the development of autonomous mobile microrobots. A detailed description of his work is available at http://users.iol.it/riccardo.rocca. You may reach him at riccardo.rocca@iol.it