December 11, 2008
The Roboat
There are a few groups working on the micro Transat project to make a small sailboat sail across the Atlantic autonomously. The team that won the first competition, Roboat has recently made the news with a bunch of articles.
From GizMag
Few types of transport require as much thinking per mile as sailing - the sailor has to measure the speed and direction of both the water and the wind, which can constantly change, and then manage an array of sails and underwater hydrofoils at the correct angles to create motion in the desired direction. Navigation is its own challenge too, as it's impossible to sail directly into the wind and boats must 'tack' forward in zigzag patterns to make progress. All of which makes it quite remarkable that a group of European enthusiasts have created a Linux-brained autonomous sailboat bristling with sensors and capable of working its way around pre-set race courses or sailing to pretty much any nautical destination without any human intervention. Earlier this year, the ASV 'Roboat' became the first world robotic sailing champion at an event in Austria.
The ASV Roboat is a 3.75m Laerling - a beginner's sailboat that has been adapted to become a completely autonomous sailing vessel. The Laerling design was chosen because of its 60kg keel ballast and large, buoyant foam-filled body, which combine to make it very difficult to tip over and virtually unsinkable.
The 800MHz/512 MB Mini-ITX computer controlling the Roboat runs a Linux operating system and a control software suite using Java and C++. Onboard sensors bring in GPS data for position and speed over ground, speed through water, ultrasonic wind speed and direction data, tilt-compensated compass, humidity, air and water temperature and water depth.
Solar panels make the Roboat largely energy-independent, although there's a direct methanol fuel cell to top up the batteries as a backup.
Once destination parameters are entered, the Roboat calculates and recalculates its route depending on the constant stream of data it receives. Chain-drive motors operate the mainsail, jib, rudder and boom to sail the boat to its destination.
Some nice technology. My own autonomous boat is too big to transport to the contest, and not robust enough (yet) to do the long duration missions. Very nice to see this catching on.
Other articles are in EcoFriend, NextWeb, Clean Technica, and Marketing Feeds .
Posted by elkaim at December 11, 2008 1:06 PM