Autonomous Navigation and Automated Control for a Small Balancing Hydrofoil Craft

Hydrofoil vessels have recently re-gained interest, presenting a more efficient and comfortable alternative to regular vessels. However, research in hydrofoils is limited by the high cost and complexity of developing a complete vessel to use for experimental testing. This paper presents a novel low-cost, small autonomous hydrofoil that can be used to research different hydrofoil hardware and configurations, control routines for autonomous balancing while foiling, and autonomous driving algorithms for hydrofoil crafts. A modular design with low-cost, off-the-shelf electronics is proposed and developed. Three independent PID control loops were implemented and validated, enabling the boat to remain stable in a foilborne state. An onboard GPS was used to implement autonomous driving, allowing the boat to navigate between GPS waypoints in a river. Experimental testing of the vessel indicated suitability as a low-cost, easy-to-modify, and easy-to-use hydrofoil test bed. Future research should focus on aspects of the mechanical design, investigating new control methodologies to improve performance, and investigating the efficiency gains and feasibility of performing long-range autonomous missions.