BlueRobotics Propels Itself to Cool Idea! Award
Thruster-100, designed by BlueRobotics, named Cool Idea! Award recipient. The device can be used for aquatic exploration. (Photo: BlueRobotics)
BlueRobotics designed the compact Thruster-100 as a low-cost motor and propeller unit that users can affix to remotely operated underwater vehicles and small surface vessels for aquatic exploration. A plastic framework integrated with a brushless electric motor enables the thruster to operate continuously for months at a time, navigate into deep waters and resist the corrosive nature of ocean saltwater.
By drastically reducing the hardware expense typically associated with
buying a thruster, the company hopes to provide a more accessible entry
point for hobbyists, educators, students and professionals. “There's a
developing community of people online who are doing marine robotics
projects for fun and ecological reasons and they're all having the same
problem — they don't have an affordable underwater thruster,” says
engineer and BlueRobotics co-founder,
Applications for marine robotics vary from studying ocean currents and
temperatures to photographing reefs and sea creatures to surveying
underwater wreckage. With the Thruster-100, the goal is to inexpensively
power more exploration like that. “We hope the thruster will serve as a
foundation for which other people can build things,” explains
As part of the Cool Idea! Award grant from
“While hardware, software and information have become readily available
to the rapidly expanding hobbyist robotic market, ocean exploration
within that market has been limited in part by the cost and design of
the thruster component. BlueRobotics has designed a product that will
enable not only the hobbyist market, but the academic and commercial
markets to push the current limits of marine robotics,” says
Launched in 2011, the Proto Labs Cool Idea! Award gives a total of
About
About BlueRobotics
BlueRobotics is a
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Source:
Proto Labs
Bill Dietrick, 763-479-7664
bill.dietrick@protolabs.com
or
Hotwire
for Proto Labs
Ayla Richards, 646-561-8546
ayla.richards@hotwirepr.com