6 ms·

Self-Stabilizing Boat’s Deck Is Always Flat, Even in Rough Waters

57 points by wiwiw 12y ago

Someone1234 12y ago
Exposed moving parts and salt water: Perfect bedfellows...
- tjradcliffe 12y ago
  Not a lot moreso than you'd see in a hovercraft, which are currently used in some jurisdictions (including locally where I live) for the kind of rescue work this technology is initially aimed at. It's actually a pretty clever example of disruptive tech: it does almost everything a hovercraft does but is far closer to conventional tech and will likely be cheaper and lower maintenance.
  - Someone1234 12y ago
    Hovercraft don't have too many exposed moving parts. Just the two (or one) main rotors which also generate lift in most designs. One of the reasons cited for hovercraft disappearing from many applications is the increased maintenance costs relative to normal ferries. Externally this thing has far more mechanical joints than a hovercraft. The skirt on a hovercraft is just rubber-like material bolted together, there are no moving parts in there, it just inflates (and, yes, salt does eat away at it badly). Salt can and does get brought down into the hovercraft but it shouldn't get brought into the engine directly.
    - lotsofmangos 12y ago
      Your average roll on ferry has loads of exposed moving mechanical joints. Just look at the loading ramps. http://s3.freefoto.com/images/2026/49/2026_49_11_web.jpg http://s3.freefoto.com/images/2026/49/2026_49_11_web.jpg
- jpitz 12y ago
  Because that combination hasn't ever come up in any other application?
wiwiw 12y ago
The inventor, David Hall, is an interesting guy. He started off making subwoofers and among other things he invented the 3D Lidar system used by the winners (and second place) of the DARPA Urban Challenge. Also used in the Google self driving car.
- pontifier 12y ago
  I met him at the first DARPA challenge. Before he did the Lidar thing he had an interesting realtime stereo vision system powered by DSPs. I'd say he's a modern day Edison in his tenacity when it comes to solving problems.
  - rasz_pl 12y ago
    Edison? you mean he has a team of engineers that invent stuff for him? and all he does is slap his name on their creations?
- ak217 12y ago
  Wow. I never realized Velodyne (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velodyne_Inc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velodyne_Inc.) was a family-owned, 90-employee operation. Somehow I assumed the world's most sophisticated lidar maker would be a bigger company.
dmritard96 12y ago
There are a lot of people talking about sea sickness but the reality is that sea sickness is usually a bigger problem standing still rather than moving. I could see some applications for bay usage, I would be pretty scared in the open ocean.
- w4 12y ago
  > I could see some applications for bay usage, I would be pretty scared in the open ocean. I had exactly the same reaction: how sea-worthy is this going to be in something bigger than small chop? I'm not sure I'd trust the design for that serious offshore work, though for a pleasure craft it looks aces.
- anovio 12y ago
  It depends if you're trying to maximize top speed. For racing applications, the hull's re-entry (whether nose first or transom first) greatly affects running speed. For catamarans and v-bottom boats alike, a flat water re-entry is the fastest.
ChuckMcM 12y ago
Pretty cool. If the thing could carry a single car, and the system would allow one to lower the center section so that one could drive on and drive off, I could see it as an interesting addition to cross bay traffic. Going 30 knots on the water straight from the say Moffet to the Embarcadero in SF could conceivably be faster than trying to navigate it that way by freeway.
bulltale 12y ago
Related, although a different use case: http://www.ampelmann.nl/ http://www.ampelmann.nl/
not_a_prodigy 12y ago
I had this idea when I was like 6 or 7. Seems like it's always gonna be more trouble than it's worth.
mslot 12y ago
It kind of looks like there is a Velodyne LIDAR on the roof. The "Even in Rough Waters" claim seems exaggerated.
- tlrobinson 12y ago
  The system is the work of David Hall, the engineer who founded Velodyne Acoustics in 1983 and invented an accelerometer-based servo system to control the movement of the cones used in subwoofers. In 2005, Hall developed the Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) system now used by Google’s self-driving cars to map the physical world. Not long after that, he moved on to the idea of the Martini: a boat that rides so smoothly, no wave will spill your cocktail.
nyolfen 12y ago
i'm reminded of the perhaps more impressive 'ghost': http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-21/juliet-marines-ghost-boat-will-be-hard-sell-to-u-dot-s-dot-navy http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-21/juliet-marin...
- wiwiw 12y ago
  Made by another serial inventor, Gregory Sancoff. Must be something about water that attracts inventors (and billionaires).
- wiwiw 12y ago
  Got me looking at impressive boats. This team broke the record at 65.45kts over 500m. Ride looks pretty rough. http://www.sailrocket.com/node/674 http://www.sailrocket.com/node/674
beambot 12y ago
Reminds me of the Bose active suspension system for automobiles: http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/automotive/bose_suspension/index.jsp http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/automotive/bose_suspensi... Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8sVDenpPOE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8sVDenpPOE IIRC, the major difficulty with commercialization was gov't regulations?
Terr_ 12y ago
So they call it "The Martini"? I'm going to guess whomever named it was thinking it would be "shaken, not stirred."
- JumpCrisscross 12y ago
  > Martini: a boat that rides so smoothly, no wave will spill your cocktail.
qewrffewqwfqew 12y ago
Has someone invented a rigid deck? Or is "horizontal" too many syllables?
johnloeber 12y ago
Pretty cool. When I saw the headline, I expected a boat hull filled with some sort of lubricant and another hull inside, containing the "actual boat," such that the "actual boat" would always be level. In terms of form, this would be similar to a Double Boiler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain-marie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain-marie). I always assumed that this would be how to stabilize objects like this. It's interesting to see it done in a different way. I wouldn't have imagined such a design. With the lifted body and the long legs, it vaguely reminds me of a waterbug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerridae http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerridae).
- anovio 12y ago
  Gyroscope stabilized boats exist. "Seakeeper is the world leader in active stabilization for the marine industry Now available for boats 30’ and above." $30k for their smallest unit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNJ88mBusbE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNJ88mBusbE
mataug 12y ago
Finally someone put a suspension system into a boat. This has been a long requested feature and it ~100,000 years for someone it implement this. Boats have been around since prehistoric times (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat)
- superuser2 12y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-rolling_gyro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-rolling_gyro

57 points by wiwiw 12y ago

Someone1234 12y ago

Exposed moving parts and salt water: Perfect bedfellows...

tjradcliffe 12y ago
Not a lot moreso than you'd see in a hovercraft, which are currently used in some jurisdictions (including locally where I live) for the kind of rescue work this technology is initially aimed at. It's actually a pretty clever example of disruptive tech: it does almost everything a hovercraft does but is far closer to conventional tech and will likely be cheaper and lower maintenance.
- Someone1234 12y ago
  Hovercraft don't have too many exposed moving parts. Just the two (or one) main rotors which also generate lift in most designs. One of the reasons cited for hovercraft disappearing from many applications is the increased maintenance costs relative to normal ferries. Externally this thing has far more mechanical joints than a hovercraft. The skirt on a hovercraft is just rubber-like material bolted together, there are no moving parts in there, it just inflates (and, yes, salt does eat away at it badly). Salt can and does get brought down into the hovercraft but it shouldn't get brought into the engine directly.
  - lotsofmangos 12y ago
    Your average roll on ferry has loads of exposed moving mechanical joints. Just look at the loading ramps. http://s3.freefoto.com/images/2026/49/2026_49_11_web.jpg http://s3.freefoto.com/images/2026/49/2026_49_11_web.jpg
jpitz 12y ago
Because that combination hasn't ever come up in any other application?

wiwiw 12y ago

The inventor, David Hall, is an interesting guy. He started off making subwoofers and among other things he invented the 3D Lidar system used by the winners (and second place) of the DARPA Urban Challenge. Also used in the Google self driving car.

pontifier 12y ago
I met him at the first DARPA challenge. Before he did the Lidar thing he had an interesting realtime stereo vision system powered by DSPs. I'd say he's a modern day Edison in his tenacity when it comes to solving problems.
- rasz_pl 12y ago
  Edison? you mean he has a team of engineers that invent stuff for him? and all he does is slap his name on their creations?
ak217 12y ago
Wow. I never realized Velodyne (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velodyne_Inc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velodyne_Inc.) was a family-owned, 90-employee operation. Somehow I assumed the world's most sophisticated lidar maker would be a bigger company.

dmritard96 12y ago

There are a lot of people talking about sea sickness but the reality is that sea sickness is usually a bigger problem standing still rather than moving. I could see some applications for bay usage, I would be pretty scared in the open ocean.

w4 12y ago
> I could see some applications for bay usage, I would be pretty scared in the open ocean. I had exactly the same reaction: how sea-worthy is this going to be in something bigger than small chop? I'm not sure I'd trust the design for that serious offshore work, though for a pleasure craft it looks aces.
anovio 12y ago
It depends if you're trying to maximize top speed. For racing applications, the hull's re-entry (whether nose first or transom first) greatly affects running speed. For catamarans and v-bottom boats alike, a flat water re-entry is the fastest.

ChuckMcM 12y ago

Pretty cool. If the thing could carry a single car, and the system would allow one to lower the center section so that one could drive on and drive off, I could see it as an interesting addition to cross bay traffic. Going 30 knots on the water straight from the say Moffet to the Embarcadero in SF could conceivably be faster than trying to navigate it that way by freeway.

bulltale 12y ago

Related, although a different use case: http://www.ampelmann.nl/ http://www.ampelmann.nl/

not_a_prodigy 12y ago

I had this idea when I was like 6 or 7. Seems like it's always gonna be more trouble than it's worth.

mslot 12y ago

It kind of looks like there is a Velodyne LIDAR on the roof. The "Even in Rough Waters" claim seems exaggerated.

tlrobinson 12y ago
The system is the work of David Hall, the engineer who founded Velodyne Acoustics in 1983 and invented an accelerometer-based servo system to control the movement of the cones used in subwoofers. In 2005, Hall developed the Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) system now used by Google’s self-driving cars to map the physical world. Not long after that, he moved on to the idea of the Martini: a boat that rides so smoothly, no wave will spill your cocktail.

nyolfen 12y ago

i'm reminded of the perhaps more impressive 'ghost': http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-21/juliet-marines-ghost-boat-will-be-hard-sell-to-u-dot-s-dot-navy http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-21/juliet-marin...

wiwiw 12y ago
Made by another serial inventor, Gregory Sancoff. Must be something about water that attracts inventors (and billionaires).
wiwiw 12y ago
Got me looking at impressive boats. This team broke the record at 65.45kts over 500m. Ride looks pretty rough. http://www.sailrocket.com/node/674 http://www.sailrocket.com/node/674

beambot 12y ago

Reminds me of the Bose active suspension system for automobiles: http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/automotive/bose_suspension/index.jsp http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/automotive/bose_suspensi... Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8sVDenpPOE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8sVDenpPOE IIRC, the major difficulty with commercialization was gov't regulations?

Terr_ 12y ago

So they call it "The Martini"? I'm going to guess whomever named it was thinking it would be "shaken, not stirred."

JumpCrisscross 12y ago
> Martini: a boat that rides so smoothly, no wave will spill your cocktail.

qewrffewqwfqew 12y ago

Has someone invented a rigid deck? Or is "horizontal" too many syllables?

johnloeber 12y ago

Pretty cool. When I saw the headline, I expected a boat hull filled with some sort of lubricant and another hull inside, containing the "actual boat," such that the "actual boat" would always be level. In terms of form, this would be similar to a Double Boiler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain-marie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain-marie). I always assumed that this would be how to stabilize objects like this. It's interesting to see it done in a different way. I wouldn't have imagined such a design. With the lifted body and the long legs, it vaguely reminds me of a waterbug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerridae http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerridae).

anovio 12y ago
Gyroscope stabilized boats exist. "Seakeeper is the world leader in active stabilization for the marine industry Now available for boats 30’ and above." $30k for their smallest unit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNJ88mBusbE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNJ88mBusbE

mataug 12y ago

Finally someone put a suspension system into a boat. This has been a long requested feature and it ~100,000 years for someone it implement this. Boats have been around since prehistoric times (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat)

superuser2 12y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-rolling_gyro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-rolling_gyro