Like its fins, the tail on the Blacktip drone is a bolt on module. The hull is designed with internal channels so power and data to be easily wired out to future tail modules.
Future Upgrades
Short term, the tail tip is actually the highest point out of the water – so the first upgrade we are working on is adding a wide field of view camera to either side of the tail.
Longer term, a bolt on tail module will let us explore the use of bio-inspire control surfaces. Some of the more famous bio-inspired robots that look similar to Blacktip use Thunniform locomotion of the tail for propulsion. Thunniform locomotion is the type of swimming motions you with large tails in animals like Tuna. While the tail was designed we can upgrade it to controllably flex, that is just meant for use as a bio inspired active control surface, we wont be researching bio inspired locomotion with Blacktip. If we decide to study bio inspire propulsion we will be making a new drone.
Tail Construciton
Like the rest of the V1 Blacktip hull – the tail is a hollow printed chamber that has been backfilled with blown polyurethane foam. There are chambers in the lower tail tip and under side of the tail where copper shot was added prior to that filling. The result is that the tail modules, whatever they may have added to them in the future, can be tuned during construction to be just slightly buoyancy positive, and not impact the trim of the hull.