I've always wanted to design a long range, low maintenance, autonomous
vehicle that could be controlled/communicated with remotely. It would
have no specific purpose, rather just to show that it was done because
it could be done.

My first idea was an air unit, that would be solar powered but
something like that would be very complicated and expensive to design.
Also, I'd imagine that long lasting electric motors in the RC hobby
field are hard to come by (I'm thinking of something that would last
months to years spinning continuously). Also, even the slightest
problem in the air would be very difficult to fix and the consequences
would be catastrophic.

My next idea was a land rover design. The design would be far simpler
than that of any air unit. But what could be explored? You can't
really GO anywhere, just roam flat land.

But what about a water rover unit that could glide near the surface of
the water as well as dive down deep?

The unit would be powered entirely by solar energy. It would have a
large surface area to mass ratio. It would need to be sturdy and
tough, but also light and aerodynamic(?) enough to use its energy as
efficiently as possible. It would have all the fun stuff on board:
camera, spotlight, GPS unit and various sensors to detect depth and so
on. It would communicate long range to a base station on land via
whatever radio frequency best penetrates water (and is in the HAM
band).

The unit would surface to recharge its batteries during bright
sunlight. I'd imagine a few high efficiency solar panels would
suffice. During this time, it could also collect pressure, temperature
and other data from its onboard sensors, record the data and/or send
it to the base station. Every few months or so the unit would come
back to its origin for battery replacement and scheduled maintenance.
Other than that, it's just an idea.

This was just rattling in my mind today, though I don't know why. The
unit would be preferably small, no more than a metre in any dimension.
However, something tells me that water travel is very inefficient and
would require a lot of power - so the device would be rather large, to
accommodate all the solar panels.

I was thinking that it could be deployed in Lake Ontario. Maybe take
pictures of some of the fish.

I don't know. What do you guys think?
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