Towards Active Course Marks for Autonomous Sailing Competitions

Abstract

This paper describes an environmental monitoring / regatta beacon buoy under development at the Laboratory of Autonomous Systems (LSA) of Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP). The buoy is a dual mode modular and configurable system that includes communications, control, data logging, sensing, storage and power subsystems. In environmental monitoring mode, the buoy collects and stores data from several underwater and above water sensors and, in regatta mode, the buoy becomes an active course mark as well as a data beacon for the autonomous sailing boats in the vicinity. During a race, the buoy broadcasts its position, together with the wind and the water current local conditions, allowing autonomous boats to navigate towards and round successfully the mark. This project started with the specification of the requirements of the dual mode operation, followed by the design and building of the buoy structure and is currently focused on the development of the modular, configurable, open source-based control system. The ultimate goal is that autonomous sailing regatta courses are defined using this type of active course marks, ensuring that the autonomous sailing boats can concentrate on the regatta strategy and tactics rather than on finding the marks.