Design

The lab is designed for modularity. The current incarnation consists of four re-configurable 3x4 meter platforms. If one is damaged, it can be taken out and repaired while the remaining lab continues to function. These modules can also function independently as an array of mini-BOAT Labs in different locations.

The lab is self-sustaining and currently powered by a 250w solar panel connected to a solar charger, a 100ah non-spillable battery, and 1000watt inverter. It has 4 anchors which lock it in place.

Planning

The idea started with several drawing. Then we iterated with virtual 3D models. We also built physical model prototypes to test ideas, and better share the concept with locals.

The final design ended up quite similar to what we had planned!

Form

The basic form consists of multiple floating raft platforms with protective roof coverings. Each raft is a bamboo frame holding sealed plastic drums in place. This provides a super sturdy platform, and each independent module can safely hold 800lbs! To protect against the sun and rain, the modules also have roof sections. The roofs are basically another bamboo frame with thin plastic sheeting for waterproofing. Each of these modules can be used independently or connected to make an even stronger, larger laboratory. Ours includes 2 modules with roofs connected to 2 modules. Your BOAT Lab could easily accommodate many more modules for a massive island!

Materials and Budget

We built a WHOLE LABORATORY out there, so there are tons of different materials. In terms of building the main structure, though, we put it all together with just a few simple ingredients:

• Bamboo (Kawayan Tinik)
  • We got our bamboo mostly from salvaged parts of other boats that had been decommissioned around Dumaguete. They had a really big floating schoolhouse that had been destroyed by a storm which we managed to salvage lots of materials from.
• Plastic Drums
  • This provides the main floating abilities of the lab. We also manage to salvage these from other rafts that had crashed in the nearby area.
• Nylon string
  • We used basically really thick fishing line. It's what all the locals use to build their own boats. Specifically we used 100 gauge nylon string. Other builders sometimes use long strings of rubber that are recycled from the insides of tractor-trailer tires. They call this rubber string "conveyer." The rubber supposedly lasts longer, but we couldn't source large enough quantities of it at the time. You can also make your suprisingly strong own plastic string by shredding plastic bottles (more in a later step!)

Tools

The main tools you need are gloves and a saw. The saw lets you cut the bamboo to size, and the gloves let you tie the wood together tightly! You can make 90% of this boatlab with just gloves and a saw.

Other tools that will help include some basics like:

• Drill
• Machete
• Metal Nails
• Measuring Tape
• Tarps for shade
• Water
• Food

Electronics

A big solar panel powered everything on board, and these were very easy to find in the Philippines.

The rest of the electronics we found locally, or brought from the US.

In terms of our electronics prototyping equipment, we bought much of our own, but were lucky to recieve lots of materials and tools from Sparkfun's Education Department! https://learn.sparkfun.com/about

They are an incredible organization, and we are so thankful to be able to make good use of the equipment they gave us! Thanks!

Budget

Now this seems like it would be a huge undertaking to build your whole own floating laboratory. Making something this big must be prohibitively expensive right? Nope! In fact I included an interactive budget here so you can explore exactly how the entire Waterspace program's money was spent!.

This budget includes $1000 of equipment from Sparkfun, $10,000 from ZERO1+US State Department, and about $1500 of my own money for a total of $12,500. And boy, did we make it go far!

INTERACTIVE BUDGET (Hackday's site won't let me embed it here):

http://jsfiddle.net/blorgggg/bo8j0166/6/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=bo8j0166

For instance, if you look at our graph, building the BOAT Lab only took about 1/8 of the budget ($1600), and stocking it with furniture, solar panels, and electronics was only another $2,000. The rest of our budget went towards individual projects and sustainability grants to keep people working and using the BOAT Lab.

Traditional Bamboo Boat-making

Before building our own BOAT Lab, I went around and interviewed the locals and studied how they built their own boats from the materials nearby. You can see lots of photos of different ways people traditionally build their own boats here in the Philippines. https://www.flickr.com/photos/8560499@N02/albums/7...

The basics of boat making in this region consists of tying together lengths of bamboo with string or rubber. Using this basic method people build boats, houses, and even furniture with bamboo.

Type of Bamboo

There are two types of bamboo we had available in the Philippines, "Kawyan Tinik" which has a diameter of about 4-5 inches, and "Butong" which is huge and has a diameter of 8+inches. The Butong is harder to find, and not really necessary for our boat's structure.

Bamboo Nails

The first way that the boat-builders connect main supporting structures of bamboo is by making nails out of bamboo itself!

They slice many long rods of bamboo. They slice the front end pretty sharp, and leave a notch before the broad stopper head to kind of lock the nail in place.

Then they bore holes perpendicularly through the bamboo pieces that are a little too small for the nail. Finally you hammer this nail through the hole until you have a good snug fit!

Next they will totally secure these connections by tying them in place!

Tying Wood (Ba'at)

Most of the boats are made just by tying things together REALLY TIGHTLY. They call this process "Ba'at" in Visayan.

To do this just follow these steps:

• Get a long piece of nylon cord (or tire rubber, or string)
• Tie one end around some bamboo with a regular square knot. Tie a couple of extra knots
• Make a figure-8 between the bamboo and it's neighbor bamboo that you are attaching it to.
• After each figure-8 pull everything nice and tight
• repeat-10-20 times

That will get two logs together. Then comes the part where they make this joint REALLY TIGHT.

• start wrapping the remaining cord around the cord bridging the two pieces of wood
• You will make a coil that will start drawing the wood even closer together
• after you have a nice firm coil, finish off the knot with several square knots.

This thing is not going anywhere!

Frame

Remember that the whole lab is built from multiple modules attached together. The first step to your lab is just building the floating base of the lab. Start by building a frame to hold all your floating barrels together.

• First, lay down the bottom of the frame
• Tie the bottom rack securely

• load the barrels in place

• build up side walls holding in the barrels
• lock everything in with a rack of bamboo on the top

You can see a timelapse of the construction here:

Flooring and Post Holes

Lay some flat boards across the top of your floating frame. These can be from bamboo that you flatten out in thin strips, or we salvaged some marine plywood from a previous boat.

It's important to leave 4 holes in your flooring at the corners. The posts holding up the roof will go through here!

Make sure to test out your module at the end and check that it floats! This will let you know everything is secure, that there are no problems with your barrels, and the thing actually floats!

Building the Roofs

Now you need to add some roofing to your raft.

The roof has two parts: The Supporting Frame, and the Actual Roof.

Supporting Frame

First sink 4 heavy duty pieces of bamboo into the holes in the flooring. Two poles should be longer than the other two.

*Calculation! Important!: The angle of your roof will be determined by the difference in length between these poles. To optimize the sun exposure feeding your solar panels, you need to calculate your roof's angle based on your own latitude. We were at about 8 degrees north in the philippines, but at low lattitudes like this, you need sharper angles to make sure rain still runs off. Thus our final roof angle was set at 12 degrees.

Add some cross beams to the poles to strengthen the whole structure (and provide parts for workers scrambling around).

Actual Roof

The design of the actual roof is pretty simple. Build a flat grid from bamboo (like you already did when making the rafts). Attach some impermeable barrier to it (We had plastic sheeting) to make your roof rain-proof. If this roof is going to have a solar panel on it, make sure to attach it now (before it is fixed on top of the roof). More on this in the solar-panel step!

Connect and Test a full module

Connect

Finally, lift the roof onto the frame, and tie it all together! Video shows some close up looks at the whole thing!

Test

Again, it's super helpful to make sure everything floats in the water! Also, since it's modular, you can test out how the boat works as just a single module.

Each module is pretty big on its own and will easily support 3-5 people. The main downside is that the BOAT Lab become much more STABLE with a larger base (when all the modules are connected).

The effect of this is that doing close work (like soldering) on a single module bobbing in the waves can make you pretty seasick, pretty quick! A single module would work perfectly on a lake, or other body of water without waves.

Safety Inspection

Big structures contain many inherent dangers. In our daily lives, we tend to take for granted many of the safety inspections many of the buildings we pass through have. An important factor when working on a large in-progress project, is making sure that things that aren't quite built yet, do not look like they are finished.

For instance, I was working on a solar panel on the roof, and there was an extra support beam we had not yet installed. I decided to just kinda half-install it, so it was in the right spot, but was not properly tied down. Fast forward to 5 minutes later, when I, myself, forgot forgot I only half installed it, and grabbed for it when standing on top of a chair and fell instantly into the water.

The camera recording a timelapse actually caught the moments between me working, and me falling intot he water (pics above).

So two rules:

• INSPECT THAT ALL MATERIALS ARE SECURELY IN PLACE
• DO NOT BUILD THINGS THAT ONLY LOOK LIKE THEY ARE PROPERLY IN PLACE.