Re:Foiling Electric Boat
by Candelaboat on Thursday August 20, 2020 @01:47PM
(#24226144)
Great question. What's different in our case is that the flight controller captures the boat’s movements from 7 sensors. Then it establishes the full-state 3×6 state matrix (position, velocity and acceleration with regards to position in x, y and x and rotation around the same axis). This is partly done using sensor fusion algorithms.
We then use the outputs to control the angle of attack, along the longitudinal axis of the foil, essentially twisting it. The R&D that has gone into making this work reliably enough for a consumer product is our secret sauce.
I have a lot of questions and doubts, but I guess this would not be the best place to ask them.
Anyway, congrats on the product. It feels awesome.
Re:Foiling Electric Boat
by jessaustin on Thursday August 20, 2020 @01:56PM
(#24226270)
Helicopter blades change angles mechanically as controlled by human input. I presume the big ship propellers are the same, except they're probably more "set-and-forget"? Obviously the automatically-adjusted foils of a speedboat this size are a completely different situation.
Is it to maintain a set height or change height too. I know that too high, and the boat becomes unstable.
I know that retracting the foils is a simple thing, relatively speaking.
However, if you are actually controlling the foil angle, isn't the technology available for decades? I mean there are cooling water pumps that change the impeller vane angles during operation at 400 - 700 RPM, there are helicopter blades that change angles, ship propellers can also change angle during operation, etc. There are many examples.
What technical problem have you specifically overcome in this case?