Protei on the River Maas
In preparation for his residency, Cesar Harada visited V2_Lab last week. Together with Etienne Gernez and Henrik Rudstrøm, he built this test model for Protei, in which the basic principles of an inflatable, articulated hull were tested. Constructed from low-cost materials, the model sailed the Maas successfully.
Protei Test Model 006.0
This scale model was created in less then three days, in a first attempt to combine all the principles that were investigated earlier: a fully articulated body, a remote controlled system to move the articulated hull and the sails and the use of a self-made inflatable structure. You can read more documentation on the previous versions (Protei 001 - 005) on protei.org.
During the summer of 2011, Protei 006 will be further developed within V2_Lab, assisted by an international team of highly skilled engineers. Protei is an autonomous sailing robot designed to clean up oils spills.
A Kickstarter project has been launched to crowd-source the required funds. You can become a backer as well. Protei will be made available as Open Source Hardware, so anyone can use, modify and distribute the technology for free.
