Actual Machine Experiments of Autonomous Sailing Boat Enabling Reaching Upwind Destination

Abstract

Our previous automatic sailing machine used only positional information and it controlled its sail and rudder to maximize the boat speed. So, our previous sailing boat could not head upwind. In this study, we propose a new set of control laws using goal direction component of the boat velocity vector. We implemented the control laws in a small sailing boat equipped with Raspberry Pi and GPS module, and verified them in the real world experiments. We set a triangle course with two target positions and indicated to return to the start point. As a result of the experiments, the use of the goal direction component worked effectively, and the sailing boat came back to the start point successfully in the case where sufficient wind blows.