Autonomous marine surface vessels, proven on real water — not just in simulation.

botboat.ai is a marine robotics & edge-AI consulting practice operating an instrumented 32-ft sailing testbed on San Francisco Bay. We architect ROS 2 / NVIDIA Jetson autonomy stacks, integrate NMEA 2000 sensor buses, and validate customer algorithms against RTK-GPS ground truth in live conditions.

Testbed Telemetry — Gulf 32 Platform Vessel

Water Temp
°C
Salinity
PSU
DC Solar Bus
V
Battery SOC
%
RTK GPS Fix
± cm
Jetson Edge AI
FPS
Heading / SOG
° kn
Bilge Telemetry
$ awaiting bus data…

Consulting Services & Rate Card

Fixed-scope, fixed-fee engagements. Every engagement produces contemporaneous engineering logs, datasets, and a written report — deliverables you can put in front of your own stakeholders.

🧠 Edge AI & Telemetry Advisory Sprint

$2,500
per sprint
  • ROS 2 autonomy architecture review
  • NVIDIA Jetson Orin deployment plan
  • NMEA 2000 bus & sensor integration map
  • DC power budget & solar sizing
  • Written findings + 2 follow-up calls
Book Advisory Sprint

🔬 Sea Trial Validation & Benchmarking

$1,500
per 4-hour session
  • Live SF Bay session on our testbed vessel
  • Your algorithms vs RTK-GPS ground truth
  • Full N2K + hydrographic sensor logs
  • Timestamped benchmark dataset delivery
  • Weather-contingent, free rescheduling
Book Sea Trial

⚡ Turnkey Autonomous Systems Engineering

$5,000
per engagement
  • End-to-end autonomy stack build-out
  • Safety interlocks & failsafe design
  • Sensor fusion (GPS/IMU/sonar/vision)
  • Sea-trial acceptance test included
  • Handoff docs + 30-day support window
Scope an Engagement

The Testbed Platform

A 1983 Gulf 32 pilothouse sloop, refit as a floating robotics laboratory — berthed in Ventura with regular SF Bay operations. Real keel, real fouling, real EMI: the failure modes simulation never shows you.

Vessel

HullGulf 32 pilothouse sloop, full keel, 12,500 lb displacement
PropulsionDiesel auxiliary + autopilot-integrated helm actuation
PowerSolar array + AGM bank, instrumented DC bus telemetry
OperationsVentura Harbor berth · San Francisco Bay trial range

Compute & Sensing

Edge AINVIDIA Jetson class inference (30+ FPS vision pipelines)
NavigationRTK GPS (cm-class), 9-DOF IMU (BNO085), fluxgate compass
BusNMEA 2000 backbone + NMEA 0183 bridges, full PGN logging
HydrographyWater temp, salinity, depth; bilge & pump telemetry

Software Stack

MiddlewareROS 2, custom N2K gateways, ESP32 sensor nodes
DataTimestamped mission logs, RTK ground-truth datasets
BenchmarksEdge inference profiling on live camera + sensor feeds
TelemetryThe live board above streams from this stack's simulator when the vessel is not underway

How an Engagement Runs

Businesslike from first contact: every engagement gets a numbered Scope of Work, a written deliverable, and an invoice trail.

Intake & SOWSubmit the form below — you immediately receive a numbered Consulting Agreement & Scope of Work (INV-BOTBOAT-…).
Scope CallWe confirm objectives, vessel/platform details, datasets, and the sea-trial window within one business day.
ExecutionSprint work or live trial sessions, with contemporaneous engineering and mission logs throughout.
Delivery & InvoiceWritten report + datasets delivered with the closing invoice; net-15 via ACH or commercial card.

Start an Engagement

Tell us about your platform and objectives. You'll get your numbered SOW instantly, and a reply from the principal engineer within one business day.