Electric Trolling Motor GPS Navigation

 

I’m totally new to the robotics world but believe my answer lies here with your expertise.  In the process of collecting bathymetric data using transects and manually navigating to each way point.  The thought of purchasing an “auto pilot” or some kind of GPS interface to the electric trolling motor was considered to obtain more accurate data but, there aren’t any in production.  Does anyone have any ideas to enable an electric trolling motor to be navigated by waypoints/routes entered into a GPS Chart plotter?  Can the motor currently used to steer the electric trolling motor used directly as the “servo” in the setup?  The GPS does have and NMEA output serial and/or USB cable.  What needs to be made and how?  What kind of hardware and software will be needed for this interface?  How difficult would it be for an absolute novice to attempt this task?  Any ideas or suggestions will greatly be appreciated.  Thanks.

 

Geir Anderson’s projects

Geir Anderson’s projects Whirligig and Sea Rendering might be of interest to you.

Thank you ignoblegnome for

Thank you ignoblegnome for mentioning my projects.


The SEA RENDERING project https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/21098 is probably very close to what you want to do.
In the past I have helped a guy from Spain completing a similar data logger so send me an PM if you need some help.


I’m currently rebuilding the Sea Rendering project and upgrading to FEZ Panda running .NET This version also have control box to enable me to communicate with the boat when on a mission and let me stream depth data live to my PC via Xbee.