RoboBoat : SimLE SeaSentinel Team ASV

It is a project that developed an autonomous unmanned surface vessel (ASV) platform designed to efficiently patrol and monitor coastal waters.

Aimee0

Published December 16, 2025

123 UCC

25 WCC

29 VAR

Original source (new tab)

Components

Hardware components

WIZnet - W5500-EVB-Pico

x 1

Project description

📌Overview

SeaSentinel is a project launched in November 2021 by SimLE, a student scientific club at Gdańsk University of Technology in Poland, with the goal of developing an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) platform for efficient coastal patrol and surveillance.

To date, a total of three vehicles have been developed, and the team has achieved the following awards at the international RoboBoat competition held in Sarasota, Florida, USA.

ASV Perkoz: RoboBoat 2023 (9th place)
ASV Rybitwa: RoboBoat 2024 (7th place)
ASV Zimorodek: RoboBoat 2025 (8th place)

📌Background

RoboBoat (https://roboboat.org/)

Source : https://youtu.be/OIVBayCQBm8?si=JKZx0NEGBqjA0qTC

RoboBoat is an international competition in which students design and build autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) to compete. Organized by RoboNation, it primarily involves high school, undergraduate, and graduate students.

RoboNation (https://robonation.org/)

RoboNation is a nonprofit organization founded by the AUVSI Foundation that runs education programs and innovation-driven robotics competitions with the goal of strengthening students’ robotics and engineering skills.

Source : https://zrzutka.pl/s93z9g?utm_medium=mail&utm_source=postmark&utm_campaign=payment_notification

Source : https://pg.edu.pl/en/news/2022-01/seasentinel-port-drone-preventing-contamination-new-simle-project#:~:text=Date%20added%3A%202022

The project was founded by Igor Rusiecki, who began developing the idea while he was still a high school student and later continued to advance the project together with the SimLE team.

📌Features

Fully autonomous surface navigation
- GPS, IMU, and camera-based navigation
- Mission-driven autonomous behavior execution
Advanced perception system
- Stereo cameras (OAK-D series)
- YOLO-based object detection and target classification
Precise propulsion and attitude control
- Omnidirectional movement using multiple thrusters
- Station keeping and precise rotational control
ROS 2–based software architecture
- Clear separation of sensing, control, and perception modules
- Shared codebase between simulation and real vehicles

📌System Architecture

The SeaSentinel system has a dual architecture consisting of an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) and a ground segment.

🚤 Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV)

The ASV is the core operational element of the SeaSentinel project.

Independently collects its own state (position, attitude, speed) and surrounding environmental information while operating on the water
Performs autonomous decision-making based on sensor data from cameras, GPS, IMU, and other sources
Executes tasks on a mission-by-mission basis using Behavior Trees
Capable of navigation, obstacle avoidance, docking, and mission execution without external intervention

Visual Feedback System	OAK-D LR	Uses cameras to detect buoys, docks, and other boats, and provides distance and positional information to the OBC.
OBC (On-Board Computer)	Jetson	Based on camera perception results and vehicle state, the OBC decides the next actions and sends corresponding commands to the VCU and SOM.
VCU (Vehicle Control Unit)	Pixhawk 5X	Receives commands from the OBC and controls the thrusters to physically maneuver the vessel while maintaining stable attitude control.
Special Operations Module (SOM)	W5500-EVB-Pico	Executes non-navigation mission actions such as operating a water cannon or delivering objects. It performs only predefined actions according to instructions from the OBC.

🖥 Ground Segment (GS)

The Ground Segment includes all support elements that remain on land while the ASV operates on the water.

Operator Control Station (OCS)
- A portable control and monitoring station installed inside the competition tent.
Transport & Support Equipment (Cart & Crates)
- Safely transports the ASV to the launch site
- Provides logistical support for batteries, spare parts, and operational equipment

📌System Flow

The project aims to complete the following tasks included in the Autonomy Challenge at RoboBoat 2025:

Task 1: Navigation Channel
- Recognize a gate formed by two large markers and pass through it by following a sequence of waypoints.
Task 2: Mapping Migration Patterns
- Navigate along green and red buoys while identifying yellow buoys as obstacles and generating an avoidance path.
Task 3: Treacherous Waters (Docking)
- Detect the docking area, select an appropriate entry point, enter the dock, come to a stop, and then exit and return.
Task 4: Race Against Pollution (Speed Challenge)
- Starting from the launch zone, detect blue buoys and LED signals to execute a high-speed route, then return to the starting point.
Task 5: Rescue Deliveries
- A structured single mission in which the ASV navigates to a predefined target location and performs an action such as dropping a ball or spraying water.
Task 6: Return to Home
- Use a black buoy as a reference point to generate the final waypoint and return to the original launch position.

📌Role and Application of the W5500

The communication architecture of the SeaSentinel project has evolved step by step through several years of ASV development experience.

ASV Perkoz (2023)
A distributed control architecture was implemented using the CAN bus and the OpenCyphal protocol. However, the team encountered limitations such as complex integration with ROS 2 and difficulty in expanding hardware modules.
ASV Rybitwa (2024)
To address these issues, the communication structure was completely re-evaluated, and an Ethernet-based system bus was adopted with seamless integration into ROS 2 as the top priority. The fact that both the VCU (Pixhawk) and the onboard SBC already support Ethernet was also a key factor in this decision.
ASV Zimorodek (2025)
Building on the Ethernet-centric architecture, the system was further refined to integrate sensors, special task modules, and control boards into a single unified ROS 2 network.

Starting with ASV Rybitwa, the W5500-EVB-Pico was adopted as a key component for connecting hardware modules to the system.

Adds Ethernet capability to MCUs via SPI
Minimizes MCU load through hardware TCP/IP offloading
Directly compatible with the Ethernet transport layer of micro-ROS
Enables even resource-constrained MCUs to publish and subscribe to ROS 2 topics

📌Market & Application Value

The ASV Zimorodek project was developed with the RoboBoat 2025 competition as its immediate goal, but its design structure and technology choices are significant in that they clearly target real-world market applications as an autonomous surface robot platform.

The system adopts a modular architecture (Special Operations Module), allowing mission-specific equipment to be swapped as needed. This provides a flexible ASV platform that can be extended to a wide range of marine and robotics applications, including environmental monitoring, port inspection, and education and research testbeds.

By using a ROS 2–based software architecture and an Ethernet-centric communication structure, the platform forms an open ecosystem that avoids dependency on specific vendors. This reduces development and maintenance costs while enabling immediate use of existing robotics expertise.

As a result, this project goes beyond a competition-focused robot and demonstrates strong market potential and application value as a next-generation autonomous surface vehicle platform suitable for research, education, and industrial use.

📌Reference Link

SimLE Team (https://simle.pl/seasentinel/)

Research 2024

https://robonation.org/app/uploads/sites/3/2024/01/SeSe_TDR_RB24-4.pdf

Research 2025

https://robonation.org/app/uploads/sites/3/2025/02/TDR_SeaSentinel_RB2025.pdf

📌External Indicators

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/simle.pg/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw%3D%3D#

Youtube (2024)

Youtube (2025)

📌WIZnet Strategic Value

SeaSentinel is a real-world example of an Ethernet-centric autonomous robotics architecture, and WIZnet’s W5500 can be positioned with the following strategic value:

A reference for stable wired networking in autonomous and marine robotics
A concrete example of MCU-level Ethernet integration in ROS-based systems
A networking solution that mitigates the limitations of Wi-Fi–centric designs for industrial and research use
Technology exposure to next-generation engineers through educational and competition robotics programs

📌Summary

SeaSentinel is a highly mature autonomous surface robot project developed for the RoboBoat competition.
Its architecture—combining ROS 2, vision-based perception, precise control, and an Ethernet-based network—provides a very practical reference for designing autonomous marine robots.
From WIZnet’s perspective, it represents a meaningful UCC that demonstrates the applicability of the W5500 Ethernet solution in the autonomous robotics domain.