Crew-less Sailing Boats to cross Atlantic

by BW Media on 14 May 2008 In October this year, a Transatlantic sailing race of historic proportions is to take place – but none of the world's famed sailors will be there – not Ellen, not Sir Robin, not Dee and not even Frenchman Francis Joyon or Russian Fedor Konyukhov. That's because, on the eight sailing boats taking part, there'll be nobody on board!

The USA is fielding two teams, the UK two, and France, Austria, Canada and Portugal will each field a team.

It's called the Microtransat Challenge and is a transatlantic race of fully autonomous sailing boats. The race aims to stimulate the development of autonomous sailing boats through friendly competition. The race will put the robots to test for their capabilities to survive without battery chargers and technical assistance. By sailing non-stop and unassisted for an estimated three months, it will prove the potential for robotic craft to undertake vital research in roles in dangerous and far-off waters.

One of the USA entries is imaginatively called Robotboat Mark III, and the leader of Team Robotboat is Walter Holemans, Silver Spring, Maryland. Robotboat Mark III is operational this month, and is expected to be far superior to the previous versions. Another USA entry, Team Savage is still looking for sponsors to fund the challenge.

The UK entry, known as ‘Pinta the robot’, is designed by scientists at Aberystwyth University. Christopher Columbus, Captain of the original Pinta, would no doubt be not a little surprised to find that no crew - not even he - is necessary to cross the Atlantic today. This Pinta, like the other competitors, will use solar panels to provide the power to operate a robot arm on the tiller, and a pulley system to change the angle of the sail.

Pinta will have a maximum speed of 4 knots but with a 2.5 knots average speed it is expected to take three months to reach the strait between Martinique and St Lucia.

The boat is a smaller, cheaper version of a more elaborate robot sailing boat, Beagle B, and is being used to prove that the onboard technology works. If it manages to cross from the Portuguese coast to the Caribbean the scientists who built it hope to risk Beagle B, which cost £40,000, on a long-distance journey. The 150kg Pinta is being used instead of Beagle B because it costs only £2,500

Mark Neal, of Aberystwyth University, told a Times correspondent: 'This is the first time anybody has attempted to sail across any ocean with an automated boat. The big issue in robotics at the moment is longevity and flexibility in a complicated environment.

'Something that can survive for two to three months completely unassisted while doing something interesting is a major challenge. If it does get there I will be seriously cheerful. It will open up all the oceans to environmental monitoring by robots.'

A robotic sailing boat able to find its own way around the seas would be able to undertake sampling expeditions to collect data for scientists studying, among other topics, climate change, weather and the chemistry of the oceans.

Teams registered for the 2008 Microtransat are:

- Aberystwyth University, United Kingdom
- Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Constructions Aéronautiques (ENSICA) and IUT De Nantes, Tolouse/Nantes, France
- The Austrian Association for Innovative Computer Science (INNOC), Vienna, Austria
- Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
- Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), Portugal
- Team Robotboat, Walter Holemans, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
- Team Savage, Private Entry, USA
- Portencross Boys, Private Entry, Glasgow, United Kingdom