The bare-bones Raspberry Pi mainboard is an interesting device that has won accolades from geeks and tech enthusiasts.
Typically, the little mainboard associated with projects like building a tiny HTPC or other type of computer. However, as it goes with most things geek, you never really know exactly where the $35 Raspberry Pi will ultimately end up.
To be perfectly honest, I certainly never would have never pictured someone using the small computer as the brains for an automated boat.
Enter the FishPi , a (hopefully) seaworthy vessel designed by Greg Holloway, who plans on sailing the ship across the Atlantic Ocean.
To protect the electronics, Holloway intends to lock the mainboard inside a Tupperware container.
Now this hardly seems like enough protection to me. I mean, if I was going to send a mainboard across the ocean, I would use something much more protective, say like an OtterBox at the very least.
In any case, Holloway’s autonomous boat measure some 20-inches from bow to stern and is equipped with a 40 mm propeller. Power is expected to be generated by a 130 W solar panel connected to batteries powering the electric motor. The project is still in the design stages now, as you can see from the photo.
Nevertheless, Holloway says he intends to produce kits for enthusiasts and professionals to tinker with. I admit it would be really cool if the small boat could make it across the ocean. Still, It’s kind of hard for me to believe a tiny 20-inch long vessel with its brains encased in a food container could make it across a lake, much less the ocean.
