Autonomous boat design
Redesigning survey vessels for mass production
Industrial design
Solution & Impact
Drastically accelerated production timelines by reducing manual assembly, while maintaining on-the-water stability. Result was highly rigid, ultra-durable hulls, including a flagship catamaran capable of supporting human weight.
Role
Lead industrial designer
Duration
2 months
Company
Platypus LLC
Skills
User research
UX/UI
Product management
Accessibility
Design system
Tools
Autodesk Fusion 360
"How might we transform a bespoke, hand-assembled robotic vessel into a mass-manufacturable hardware platform without losing deployment flexibility?"
Complex manufacturing
Hand-crafted assembly lines limited production volume, drove up unit costs, and introduced weaknesses in the vessel integrity.
High tooling stakes
Moving to rotomolding required expensive, irreversible tooling molds with zero margin for prototyping errors.
Component fragmentation
Accommodating various third-party marine sensors required custom engineering for every single client.
2
Modeling & benchmarking
CAD: I modeled the three hollow vessels, optimized for rotomolding, that could accommodate various internal and external sensors. I included built-in, prefabricated mounting points, allowing the standardized boats to host a wide array of specialized sensors natively without secondary post-mold drilling.
Benchmarking: Since the new vessels would be hollow plastic, ensuring structural integrity was paramount. I conducted research into modern kayak production to benchmark optimal wall-thickness variables and stress-bearing geometries.
Solution
From hand made hulls to modular manufacturing
Unification: Redesigned all three boat sizes under a cohesive design language with integrated logo, optimizing each for the realities of industrial rotomolding while cutting assembly steps.
Modular design: Designed the hulls to host both custom and off-the-shelf components and hardware, both internally and externally, allowing for flexible but easier assembly.
Structural integrity: Strategic structural ribbing added during the digital modeling phase allowed the hollow plastic hulls to withstand harsh field operations. The largest catamaran model proved rigid enough to comfortably support human weight.
Deployment: On-the-water validation confirmed that the standardized hull dynamics performed as expected.
Were the challenges met?
Complex manufacturing
High tooling stakes
Component fragmentation
Reflections
My role: Served as the sole end-to-end product designer.
What went well
DFM mindset: Designing around kayak manufacturing methodologies and standard COTS parts eliminated dozens of downstream production hurdles and dramatically dropped assembly times.
Proactive collaboration: Partnering early with local manufacturers and cross-disciplinary engineers de-risked the high financial stakes of rotomold tooling, guaranteeing a successful first-run production.