Robotic Sailing 2013 : Proceedings of the 6th International Robotic Sailing Conference

An autonomous sailboat robot is a boat that only uses the wind on its sail as propelling force, without remote control or human assistance to achieve its mission. This involves autonomy in energy (using batteries, solar panels, turbines ...), sensor data processing (compass, GPS, wind sensor ...), actuators control (rudder and sail angle control ...) and decision making (embedded computer with adequate algorithms). Although robotic sailing is a relatively new field of research, several applications exist for this type of robots : oceanographic and hydrographic research, maritime environment monitoring, meteorology, harbor safety, assistance and rescue in dangerous areas ... Over the last decade, several events such as the Microtransat challenge, the WRSC/IRSC and SailBot have been set up to stimulate research and development around robotic sailing. These proceedings cover the current and future academic and technology challenges raised by the development of autonomous sailboat robots presented at the WRSC/IRSC (World Robotic Sailing Championship/International Robotic Sailing Conference) 2013, in Brest, France, 2-6 September 2013 Robotic Sailing 2013 Preface 5 Organization 7 Contents 9 Part I Hardware Design 14 MARIUS: A Sailbot for Sea-Sailing 15 1 Goals and Specifications 15 2 Process of Design 17 2.1 Mechanical Part 17 2.2 Instruments and Energy 19 2.3 Control Unit 20 3 Embedded Intelligence 21 3.1 Manual Control Mode 21 3.2 Automatic Mode 22 4 Conclusion and Future Works 23 References 24 Development of a Low-Budget Robotic Sailboat 25 1 Introduction 25 2 Methods and Material 26 2.1 Concept 26 2.2 Hull and Rig 27 2.3 Sensors and Motors 29 2.4 Electronics and Software 29 3 Results 31 3.1 Boat Speed 31 3.2 Course Stability 32 3.3 Energy 33 4 Discussion 34 5 Conclusion 35 References 35 Realization of an Autonomous Robotic Sailboat 37 1 Introduction 37 2 Electrical Realization 38 3 Mechanical Realization 39 3.1 Building the Sailboat 39 3.2 Integration of the Scientific Measurement System 40 4 I.T. Realization 42 4.1 Human-Machine Interface 42 4.2 Implementing Algorithms 43 5 Testing 43 6 Conclusion 47 References 48 An Arduino Compatible CAN Bus Architecture for Sailing Applications 49 1 Introduction 49 2 Related Work 51 2.1 Low-Level Architecture of Existing Robot Systems 51 2.2 Commercial Marine Electronics 52 2.3 Existing Assistance Systems Designed for Disabled Sailors 53 3 System Description 54 4 CAN Bus Architecture 56 4.1 CAN Protocol 57 4.2 CAN Bootloader 59 4.3 Demonstrator 59 5 Conclusion 60 References 60 Part II 63 Part II Energy and Power Management Strategies 63 Development of ARRTOO: A Long-Endurance, Hybrid-Powered, Oceanographic Research Vessel 64 1 Introduction 65 2 PrototypeDesign 65 2.1 Prototype Performance 68 3 FullSizedDesign 70 3.1 Power Budget 70 3.2 Onboard Electronics 71 3.3 Design Improvements and the Full-Scale Concept 72 3.4 Market Analysis 74 4 Conclusions 75 References 76 An Embedded Low-Power Control System for Autonomous Sailboats 77 1 The Sailboat 77 1.1 The Vessel 78 1.2 The Hardware 79 2 Control System 81 2.1 Software Architecture 82 3 Experiments 86 4 Discussion and Conclusions 87 5 Future Work 88 References 88 Sailboat as a Windmill 90 1 Introduction 90 2 State Space Model 91 3 Controller 94 4 Test-Case 97 5 Conclusion 99 References 100 Part III Modeling, Simulation, Control, and Stability Analysis 102 Modeling and Control Design of a Robotic Sailboat 103 1 Introduction 103 2 Notation 104 3 System Modeling 105 3.1 Forces And Torques Acting on the System 105 3.2 Rigid-Body Equations of Motion 109 4 Heading Control and Sail’s Angle Computation 112 4.1 Heading Control Design 112 4.2 Sail’s Optimum Angle Computation 114 5 Simulation Results 115 6 Conclusion 116 References 117 Transverse Stability Problems of Small Autonomous Sailing Vessels 119 1 Introduction 119 2 Scaling and Static Stability 120 3 Inverted Stability 122 4 Stability in Beam Seas 123 4.1 The Roll Equation 124 4.2 Virtual Moment of Inertia 124 4.3 Restoring Moment 125 4.4 Damping Moment 126 4.5 Excitation Moment 127 4.6 Safe Basin Technique 128 5 Conclusions 129 References 130 Part IV High Level Control Architectures and Algorithms 132 Multi-agents Decision Making Concept for Multi-missions Applications in Marine Environments 133 1 Introduction and Related Work 133 2 Decision Making Concept and Algorithm 135 2.1 Patrol Point Distribution Module 135 2.2 Mission Distribution Module 136 2.3 Missions Managed by CTPS 137 2.4 Missions Discovered by the Agents 138 3 Algorithm Simulation Environment 138 3.1 Simulations 139 3.2 Performance Analysis 140 4 Remarks and Conclusions 141 References 142 MPL—A Mission Planning Language for Autonomous Surface Vehicles 143 1 Introduction 143 2 Requirements 144 3 The Language 146 3.1 Execution Context 146 3.2 Variables 146 3.3 Procedures 147 3.4 Syntax 147 3.5 Primitives 148 4 Use Case Analysis 151 5 Conclusions 152 References 154 Author Index 155 Front Matter....Pages 1-12 Front Matter....Pages 1-1 MARIUS: A Sailbot for Sea-Sailing....Pages 3-12 Development of a Low-Budget Robotic Sailboat....Pages 13-24 VAIMOS : Realization of an Autonomous Robotic Sailboat....Pages 25-36 An Arduino Compatible CAN Bus Architecture for Sailing Applications....Pages 37-50 Front Matter....Pages 51-51 Development of ARRTOO: A Long-Endurance, Hybrid-Powered, Oceanographic Research Vessel....Pages 53-65 An Embedded Low-Power Control System for Autonomous Sailboats....Pages 67-79 Sailboat as a Windmill....Pages 81-92 Front Matter....Pages 93-93 Modeling and Control Design of a Robotic Sailboat....Pages 95-110 Transverse Stability Problems of Small Autonomous Sailing Vessels....Pages 111-123 Front Matter....Pages 125-125 Multi-agents Decision Making Concept for Multi-missions Applications in Marine Environments....Pages 127-136 MPL—A Mission Planning Language for Autonomous Surface Vehicles....Pages 137-148 Back Matter....Pages 149-149 With contributions from leading experts in the field of robotic sailing, this volume of papers from the sixth International Robotic Sailing Conference covers the current and future academic and technology challenges in developing autonomous sailboat robots.