Meet the FishPi, the designer of this tiny 20” vessel hopes that it will be able to stand up to the perils of an Atlantic crossing.

The brain of the FishPi is a highly sought after but rarely seen Raspberry Pi. The tiny computer performs all of the calculations necessary to get the boat from point A to point B using a compass, a GPS and a servo controller to steer the rudder. Power will be delivered to the Raspberry Pi and the FishPi’s motor by way of a 130-watt solar panel. An onboard camera will capture video from the drone boat’s journey.

Designer Greg Holloway has housed the Raspberry Pi in a repurposed sandwich box to protect it from all of the water that it is hopefully going to cross.

It makes for an interesting experiment. When it comes down to it, size shouldn’t be a factor in seaworthiness. As long as everything is stuck together well enough it should be able to make it. Removing the human element from the equation probably makes things a lot easier. That being said, the Atlantic Ocean is an enormous body of water and any equipment failure, no matter how small, is likely to be catastrophic.

Hopefully Holloway’s boat and all of his equipment makes it safely to its destination and the experiment ushers in a new era of DIY unmanned oceanic exploration – if it works out Holloway plans to build kits – but even if it doesn’t we are sure that he will have a lot of fun. [Source]