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Robotic Sailing 2014 pp 17–30Cite as

MaxiMOOP: A Multi-Role, Low Cost and Small Sailing Robot Platform

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Abstract

This paper describes the development, testing and operational results from a small, autonomous sailing vessel that was designed to be easily launched and retrieved by one person while carrying a 7.5 kg payload and with enough speed under sail to overcome reasonable current. The hull is 1.2 metres long and fits in the boot of a typical car. This paper focuses on the design and testing of four prototypes, two designed for short course racing and two others designed for long endurance all weather missions. Initial tests have shown top speeds of around 3 knots with a larger racing rig and 2.4 knots with a small all weather rig. One of the prototypes has attempted a transatlantic crossing. This was cut short when it was accidentally caught by a fishing boat. Two different autonomous control systems have been developed, one based around a pair of microcontrollers and intended for low power operation averaging less than 1Wand the other based around a Raspberry Pi and ATMega328 combination to ease development and test more complex sailing algorithms.

Keywords

  • Solar Panel
  • Sleep Mode
  • Wind Angle
  • Wind Sensor
  • Robotic Sailing

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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  • DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-10076-0_2
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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, USA

    Paul Miller & Matthew Hamlet

  2. Department of Computer Science, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK

    Colin Sauzé, Mark Neal, David Capper, Daniel Clark, Ashley Iles & Louis Taylor

Authors
  1. Paul Miller
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  2. Matthew Hamlet
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  3. Colin Sauzé
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  4. Mark Neal
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  5. David Capper
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  6. Daniel Clark
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  7. Ashley Iles
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  8. Louis Taylor
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bio-Inspired Electronics & Reconfigurable Computing Research Group, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

    Fearghal Morgan

  2. Hewlett Packard HP Cloud, Galway, Ireland

    Dermot Tynan

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Miller, P. et al. (2015). MaxiMOOP: A Multi-Role, Low Cost and Small Sailing Robot Platform. In: Morgan, F., Tynan, D. (eds) Robotic Sailing 2014. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10076-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10076-0_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-10075-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-10076-0

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)