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May 22, 2022

Spider-legged WAM-V suspension boats float over the waves

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

California’s Marine Advanced Robotics has made considerable progress on its remarkable Wave-Adaptive Modular Vessel (WAM-V) since we first saw these wild spider-boats 16 years ago on a list of urban legends. Legends and photoshops they were not – indeed, the giant 100-ft Proteus laid the foundations for the smaller, smarter machines the company is making today.

In a nutshell, a WAM-V is an ultra-light catamaran with hulls mounted on clever suspension legs that use springs, shocks and ball joints to move with the waves, helping to stabilize them for pitch and roll, and making these boats suitable for sea conditions where others of the same size simply can’t operate. With props always in the water, they’re highly maneuverable, and capable of spinning 360 degrees almost in their own footprint.

That’s the wave-adaptive part; they’re also modular, with quick-connect interfaces allowing operators to quickly swap out propulsion systems, payloads and sensor/instrument packages for different missions. And transportable as well, they’re built for rapid assembly and disassembly, and they break down so small that four 16-foot WAM-Vs can fit in a standard shipping container. You’d need to deflate a conventional 18-foot RIB to get even one of those in.

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