Robotic sailboat attempts to cross Atlantic alone
VANCOUVER — A team of engineering and computer science students at the University of BC are hoping the robotic sailboat — or sailbot — they plan to launch off the coast of Newfoundland this summer will be the first to cross the Atlantic completely on its own.
If successful, the as yet-unnamed sailbot would be the first to complete a transatlantic race that started in 2010.
Equipped with the latest in marine technology, from satellite navigation to thermal imaging, the 5.5-metre sailboat will make the more than 2,500-kilometre trek autonomously.
But as it sails, it will leave a digital trail online through a website where viewers around the world will be able to follow its progress as its dodges icebergs and storms in a race that starts 400 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland and ends at Dingle, an island off the coast of Ireland.
The race was first held in 2010 but to date, no robotic boats have reached the finish.
“Ideally, we will not hit anything,” said Josh Andrews, who heads the software group that is part of the 66-person UBC Sailbot team.
Other boats, all much smaller than the one the UBC team is currently constructing on the campus for launch this summer, have run into various problems — literally run into them in the case of ones that have come to an untimely end in collisions.
“Usually, they just get lost at sea,” Andrews said of race contenders. “There has been a couple of scenarios where the boats have run into islands or they’ve been picked up by other boats.”
The newest boat is the third in a series that started with the two-metre Thunderbird 2012, the first sailbot created by the team.
“From this, we learned how to really sail well with a boat this size, we learned how to go from point A to point B,” said Andrews.
Its successor, the Thunderbird 2013, is the same size, but with it the team was able to perfect the wind and GPS readings, Andrews said.
The UBC sailbots have won the International Robotic Sailing Regatta for three years running, first with the Thunderbird 2012 and then with the Thunderbird 2013 racing in both the 2013 and 2014 regattas, winning against competition that included the U.S. Navy.
But the international regatta, which is an eight- to 12-kilometre race, is child’s play compared to the challenge ahead.
The boat not only has to navigate across the ocean, it must do so totally under wind power provided by its Kevlar reinforced sails. And while the boat can sail at a speed of 10 knots, it must rely on wind speed and direction and plan its route accordingly.