Design, Development, and Testing of an Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) for Oyster Aquaculture

Abstract

To sustainably feed the growing worldwide population, development of aquaculture technology is necessary. However, it heavily lags behind that for terrestrial agriculture. The Oystermaran team at MIT Sea Grant is working on developing a vehicle to address a section of this need. Close quarters flip-bag oyster farming, common in Massachusetts, is a physically demanding job which is done entirely manually as there is no existing technology to fit into the crowded oyster field. The team developed the Oystermaran- an unmanned surface vessel designed specifically maneuver through the crowded farm and flip the baskets. This thesis covers the complete mechanical design, development, and initial testing of the 2nd Oystermaran vehicle. Built as a flexible design to allow adaptations and tuning on-site, the Oystermaran V2 featured interchangeable bows, adjustable frame and mechanism dimensions, and worked to add mechanisms and capabilities that aquafarmers requested. Multiple rounds of testing and adjustments were conducted and the Oystermaran V2 proved to be a complete platform the team can continue to test and develop to eventually make a fully autonomous vehicle.