In 2013, McMaster University in Ontario, Canada created Hitchbot, a robot that traveled across Canada and the U.S., collecting environmental data along the way. Inspired by this, the KDS DAR Middle School Robotics team created Hitch Boat, an innovation project aimed at gathering data from the ocean, where 96% of the earth’s oceans remain unexplored.
The team spent four weeks brainstorming and collaborating on the idea before building a buoy equipped with several sensors, including a pH sensor, water detection sensor, wind speed sensor, and temperature sensors for both air and water. These sensors are all connected to an Arduino computer inside the buoy to collect important environmental data.
To test their creation, the team launched Hitch Boat in a pond adjacent to the KDS campus, where it performed great earning all 4’s in the First Lego League Challenge. The team now will work to further develop the idea, improving the design and expanding its capabilities to help better understand the ocean and its environmental conditions.
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