GordanoAutonomous is a local community initiative and a not-for-profit organisation based in the Gordano valley in Somerset, UK.

Vision

A 1 year community project to develop knowledge around autonomous machines, their components and supply chains. Then rapidly develop a prototype starting with an autonomous boat.

This is not a training course. We will be researching and learning together, then concentrating on design, engineering, fabrication, assembly and machine learning

Why?

Autonomous machines will form the basis of major industries in our future. Transport, farming, manufacturing, maintenance, defence, healthcare and pets to name a few. New use cases are emerging in every area of life.

The UK is behind the curve in engineering and manufacturing autonomous machines and their components.

Aims:

• Cultivate interest, knowledge, skills and a can-do innovative attitude.
• Open an ambitious and interesting area for current and future generations.
• Potential to seed multiple businesses in the manufacture of components, assembly of products, and provision of services that deliver benefits to our local community and beyond.
• Enthuse local effort - Young, educational, retired, engineering, unemployed, and rekindle the spirit of ‘merchant venturers’.

 

Implementation

Start up stage

• Initial meeting to gage interest.
• Meeting 2 to briefly record common components required by autonomous machines, and agree a target machine for research, prototype and build.
• Meeting 3 to identify and align core groups of researchers to component areas, and find a group to help administer this organisation.

STOP if not enough interest.

Design stage

• Split into research and design teams, an organisation adminstration team and a finance team.
• Design meetings to identify and allocate component research tasks.
• Candidate designs - competing design teams if enough people.
• Costings and design refinement.
• Find sponsors and funding.
• STOP if not enough funding.
• STOP at any time if interest wanes.

Prototype build stage

• Buy, build, prototype, test.
• Repeat till satisfied or new design required.
• End of year review and propose next steps.

STOP at end of year.

Expand stage (multiple)

If enough impetus, restart at larger scale and ambition, with new funding.

 

What type of boat?

• Not a toy.
• A machine that can deal with real world risks.
• Something that can be told to travel from Clevedon pier to Swansea and back again.
• An ambitious target.

 

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