Global Data Storage for Collision Avoidance in Robotic Sailboat Racing – the World Server Approach

Abstract

Collision avoidance is very important for autonomous sailing with many boats, e.g., during races. However, collision detection based on sensor data is complicated by the sails and boat motion. Particularly small boats cannot be equipped with sophisticated sensors, e.g., due to weight and power limitations. One approach to overcome this problem is to collect and store data from all participating vessels in a central data store. This World Server then provides the data to all boats, i.e., all participants in a race have access to a global view of the race situation. We present our basic server implementation and first test results indicating that the approach allows implementing and testing collision avoidance without the need for bulky and expensive sensors.