Over the last 9 months we designed, programmed and built a 1m long autonomous sailing robot, to compete in the four challenges of the World Robotic Sailing Championship in Portugal.

Our trip to Viana do Castello was a full success – not only did we learn a lot about sailing robots, but with a second place in both the position keeping and the area scanning and a first place in the obstacle avoidance, our overall position in the micro sailboat class is 1st place!

Many thanks to everyone who supported us, especially by joining our crowd funding campaign: Thanks Alistair Lynn, Tim Miller, Tobias Schnieder, Harry Cutts, Gan Soon Sun, Matt Brown, Fiona Collins, Arnaud Wiertz, Kerrine Lee, Andy Sprot, Bob Preston, Alex Ziang, Lee Yong, Duncan Ross Russel, Alessandro Romano and Simone Provenzano.
We are also very grateful to the University of Southampton, with the funding of the EEF we were able to focus on building our boat, and bring all the spare parts that kept our boat going.
Finally, our thanks go to the organisers of the competition, for making this adventure possible!
A more detailed description of our adventure can be found in our blog, as well as all our software and details of our boat build.
Now with many new ideas we are starting our preparations for the next competition – if you want to join us:
We meet every Thursday 6 pm, new members are welcome to join us from the beginning of the new term! Check our blog, facebook page, or twitter account for the location and dates of our introduction meetings.
Blog: https://sailrobot.wordpress.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/maritimeroboticssouthampton/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sotonsailrobot