by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs updated February, 2023 Latest news (2/21/23) – the Microship has found her new skipper, and will be going through a series of development tests in Seattle before launching on the upper Missouri River in Montana. I’m leaving the narrative below for historical context. This photo shows her in…

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These tattered drawings recently turned up in the lab… and it occurs to me that I have never done a proper article about the rather too-elaborate engineering of the hydraulic systems on the Microship for rudder and landing-gear control. Here is a quick overview of this essential subsystem. The boat’s hydraulic system is made up…

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by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs As I settle into Datawake, wrapping myself in a console of rackmount blinkies, I often reminisce about the obsessive Microship project that occupied me for almost a decade (1993-2002). This amphibian pedal-solar-sail micro-trimaran is still in my life, though really should find a new skipper one of these…

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I didn’t expect this nautical non-sequitur, but even a career technomad needs to get shaken out of a rut now and again. Way back in 1993, after ten years and 17,000 miles of wandering the US aboard my “computerized recumbent bicycle,” I decided to build an amphibian pedal/solar/sail micro-trimaran and chase the same crazy dream…

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Microship Wordplay docked on Bainbridge Island

Updated January 12, 2018:  I am leaving this post here just so I don’t break deep links from Out There, but this offer is no longer available. When I wrote this post, I was planning to pull together a group of boats to circumnavigate Vancouver Island, and would have loved to have the Microship come along…

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Microship System Architecture

This was the most substantial published Microship system architecture discussion, and still, decades later, reflects the basic design concepts underlying my machines. Although the hardware implementation is completely different, the model is the same: distribute low-power networked nodes throughout the environment and provide a means for anything to talk to anything (even cases not anticipated…

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During the decade-long Microship project, I published 138 Status Reports as well as a few more general pieces in the old Nomadness series, and for years those were squirreled away in a rather obscure corner of my website as clunky text pages without any images. This one was pivotal, marking the transition from a frustrating…

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“The time required to complete a task is inversely proportional to the number of words required to express it.” — The Roberts Law of Creeping To-Do List Complexity ABSTRACT:   This is the complete design for a microprocessor-controlled, environmentally sealed 8″ video turret with two cameras, remote or autofocus, zoom control, sun damage protection, 450-degree azimuth…

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An early attempt to create a community of digital nomads, written during the first year of the Microship project. This was posted to my Technomads listserve and generated considerable discussion. (I am indebted to the DiscMaster server at the Internet Archive for unearthing this ancient document.) by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs July 1,…

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This article was the first substantial published description of Microship design, kicking off a decade of development. The wide-ranging text describes the trimaran hull and mechanical structures, operating modes, embedded controls, data collection, productivity systems, audio/video tools including crosspoint switching, radio communications, networking, power generation and management, harsh-environment packaging, and life support. This was the…

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