Lots of Sailing Trials

Lots of Sailing Trials - February to June 2019

The sailing hardware and electronic hardware has been quite stable for several months while I work on refining the sailing algorithms. The nearby lake has a good fetch from the North West, and so NW winds are the best for sailing trials. Each week I make changes to the sailing software, and perform trials, trying improve the sailing and tacking decisions as the boat moves through its waypoints.

On-board camera showing the back of the Wingsail Electronics

Sunset Trials after work

Programming a mission before commencing a run

10-15 knot breeze 

Many of the parameters from the onboard controller are transmitted in real-time back to the base station for visualisation. More parameters are recorded on an SD Card that can be reviewed in greater detail back at home.  I found it quite difficult to analyse the masses of data I was collecting by simply studying the raw log files, and so an additional Log Analyser was developed where the log files could be visualised and played back (both backwards and forwards) to study the details of the sailing decisions that were being made.
I found this vital to moving forward and resolve some the bugs in the sailing algorithms.

Log Analyser for replaying details

Note: This is part of the ongoing development of a low cost autonomous oceangoing sailing drones, utilising a self-trimming wingsail. This is the Voyager series of sailing drones.