Development and test of an open source autonomous sailing robot with accessibility, generality and extendability

This paper introduces the design of an open source autonomous sailing robot with emphasis on its accessibility, generality and extendability. To meet such requirements, a generic control box connecting an Arduino board and a Raspberry Pi computer was tailor-made so as to host the robot operating system (ROS) and to interact with versatile sensors and actuators. The goal of such a project is to create an accessible, generic and expendable platform of autonomous sailboats for wider education and research publicity and engagement. Autonomous sailing test for the developed sailboat was also conducted to validate its design

Autonomous Sailboat Navigation

The purpose of this study was to investigate novel methods on an unmanned sailing boat, which enables it to sail fully autonomously, navigate safely, and perform long-term missions. The author used robotic sailing boat prototypes for field experiments as his main research method. Two robotic sailing boats have been developed especially for this purpose. A compact software model of a sailing boat's behaviour allowed for further evaluation of routing and obstacle avoidance methods in a computer simulation. The results of real-world experiments and computer simulations are validated against each other. It has been demonstrated that autonomous boat sailing is possible by the effective combination of appropriate new and novel techniques that will allow autonomous sailing boats to create appropriate routes, to react properly on obstacles and to carry out sailing manoeuvres by controlling rudder and sails. Novel methods for weather routing, collision avoidance, and autonomous manoeuvre execution have been proposed and successfully demonstrated. The combination of these techniques in a layered hybrid subsumption architecture make robotic sailing boats a promising tool for many applications, especially in ocean observation

Design, Modeling, and Simulation of a Wing Sail Land Yacht

Autonomous land yachts can play a major role in the context of environmental monitoring, namely, in open, flat, windy regions, such as iced planes or sandy shorelines. This work addresses the design, modeling, and simulation of a land yacht probe equipped with a rigid free-rotating wing sail and tail flap. The wing was designed with a symmetrical airfoil and dimensions to provide the necessary thrust to displace the vehicle. Specifically, it proposes a novel design and simulation method for free rotating wing sail autonomous land yachts. The simulation relies on the Gazebo simulator together with the Robotic Operating System (ROS) middleware. It uses a modified Gazebo aerodynamics plugin to generate the lift and drag forces and the yawing moment, two newly created plugins, one to act as a wind sensor and the other to set the wing flap angular position, and the 3D model of the land yacht created with Fusion 360. The wing sail aligns automatically to the wind direction and can be set to any given angle of attack, stabilizing after a few seconds. Finally, the obtained polar diagram characterizes the expected sailing performance of the land yacht. The described method can be adopted to evaluate different wing sail configurations, as well as control techniques, for autonomous land yachts.This work was partially financed by National Funds through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a 337 Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) as part of project UIDB/50014/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Performance Characterization, Development, and Application of Artificial Potential Function Guidance Methods

The primary objective was to examine artificial potential function (APF) guidance performance when applied to systems with limited control authority in a dynamic environment and develop a hybrid guidance to improve algorithm convergence and computational cost. Performance with respect to both computation time and cost was improved by hybridizing the APF approach with receding horizon planning. Results showed that for the hybrid algorithm, computation time was improved from the optimal control solution while improving the convergence and cost from the APF solution. While the hybrid method greatly improved performance for a saturated system in dynamic environment, this was limited to a fully actuated system. When applied with indirect control, performance was improved, but did not converge. Based on this initial data, the hybrid approach shows promise in regard to implementation within a real-time guidance scheme, however, there is still work to be done before it will be fully effective. The secondary objective was to determine what classes of problems are well-suited to APFs or APFhybrids. The data suggests that APFs and the hybrid algorithm proposed are best applied to fully actuated systems. Additionally, if external dynamics or substantial saturation exist, APF guidance performs better when supplemented with an alternative method

Leaning-based control of an immersive telepresence robot

Abstract. This thesis presents an implementation of a leaning-based control method which allows using the body to drive a telepresence robot. The implementation consisted of a control mapping to drive a differential drive telepresence robot using a Nintendo Wii Balance Board (Wiiboard). The motivation for using a balance board as a control device was to reduce Virtual Reality (VR) sickness by using small movements of your own body matching the motions seen on the screen; matching the body movement to the motion seen on the screen could mitigate sensory conflict between visual and vestibular organs which is generally held as one of the main causes for VR sickness. A user study (N=32) was conducted to compare the balance board to joysticks, in which the participants drove a simulated telepresence robot in a Virtual Environment (VE) along a marked path using both control methods. The results showed that the joystick did not cause any more VR sickness on the participants than the balance board, and the board proved to be statistically significantly more difficult to use, both subjectively and objectively. The balance board was unfamiliar to the participants and it was reported as hard to control. Analyzing the open-ended questions revealed a potential relationship between perceived difficulty and VR sickness, meaning that difficulty possibly affects sickness. The balance board’s potential to reduce VR sickness was held back by the difficulty to use it, thus making the board easier to use is the key to enabling its potential. A few suggestions were presented to achieve this goal.Immersiivisen etäläsnäolorobotin nojaamiseen perustuva ohjaus. Tiivistelmä. Tämä diplomityö esittelee nojautumiseen perustuvan ohjausmenetelmän toteutuksen, joka mahdollistaa etäläsnäolorobotin ohjaamisen käyttämällä kehoa. toteutus koostui ohjauskartoituksesta tasauspyörästö vetoisen etäläsnäolorobotin ohjaamiseksi Nintendo Wii Balance Board -tasapainolaudan avulla. Motivaatio tasapainolaudan käyttämiseen ohjauslaitteena oli vähentää virtuaalitodellisuus pahoinvointia käyttämällä pieniä oman kehon liikkeitä, jotka vastaavat näytöllä näkyviä liikkeitä; kehon liikkeen sovittaminen yhteen näytöllä nähtyyn liikkeeseen voi lieventää näkö- ja tasapainoelinten välistä aistiristiriitaa, jota pidetään yleisesti yhtenä pääsyistä virtuaalitodellisuus pahoinvointiin. Tasapainolautaa verrattiin ohjaussauvoihin käyttäjätutkimus (N=32), jossa osallistuja ajoivat simuloitua etäläsnäolorobottia virtuaaliympäristössä merkittyä reittiä pitkin käyttämällä molemmilla ohjausmenetelmiä. Tulokset osoittivat, että ohjaussauvat ei aiheuttanut osallistujille enempää virtuaalitodellisuus pahoinvointia kuin tasapainolauta, ja lauta osoittautui tilastollisesti merkitsevästi vaikeammaksi käyttää sekä subjektiivisesti että objektiivisesti. Tasapainolauta oli osallistujille tuntematon, ja sen ilmoitettiin olevan vaikeasti hallittava. Avointen kysymysten analysointi paljasti mahdollisen yhteyden koetun vaikeuden ja virtuaalitodellisuus pahoinvoinnin välillä, mikä tarkoittaa, että vaikeus voi mahdollisesti vaikuttaa pahoinvointiin. Tasapainolaudan vaikeus rajoitti sen potentiaalia vähentää virtuaalitodellisuus pahoinvointia, mikä tarkoittaa, että laudan käytön helpottaminen on avain sen potentiaalin saavuttamiseen. Muutamia ehdotuksia esitettiin tämän tavoitteen saavuttamiseksi

Autonom robotsegelbåt för marin forskning

Åland Sailing Robots is a project whose goal is to create an environmentally friendly autonomous marine research vessel, using a sailboat. Autonomous sailing robots bring their own set of problems such as navigating with the wind, and avoiding other boats or rocks. Åland Sailing Robots outfitted a one man sailing boat with actuators, sensors, and control logic for autonomous sailing. As main propulsion for the boat a wingsail was chosen since it is easier to control than a regular sail. The boat was also fitted with a self-steering mechanism that operates using wind power. The CAN bus was chosen as the main communication protocol between different systems in the robot, since it is robust and new nodes can easily be added or removed. The navigation logic is made up of many simple voters working independently towards their own goal, their votes are added together to achieve the desired course. The boat won the World Robotic Sailing Championships 2017, where the tests were: covering an area as efficiently as possible, keeping as close as possible to a position for 5 minutes, and a race around buoys. The structure of the thesis is the following. First some other similar projects are presented shortly, and then a literary study of the technology used in the robot and possible alternatives, focusing on propulsion and communication methods. Then the thesis goes through the specific implementations in the boat in detail, considering solutions and problems that arose. Finally some results from test simulations and from the World Robotic Sailing Championship 2017 are presented.Åland Sailing Robots är ett projekt vars mål är att skapa en miljövänlig autonom marin forskningsplattform av en segelbåt. Autonoma segelbåtar medför egna problem, till exempel navigering med vinden och undvikandet av andra båtar eller stenar. Åland Sailing Robots utrustade en en-persons segelbåt med aktuatorer, sensorer och styrlogik för autonom segling. Till framdrivning valdes ett vingsegel eftersom det är enklare att kontrollera än ett vanligt segel. Båten förseddes också med en självstyrande mekanism som använder vindkraft. Kommunikationen mellan olika system i båten sker huvudsakligen via CAN-buss, eftersom det är ett robust protokoll och nya noder kan enkelt läggas till eller tagas bort. Navigations logiken består av flera enkla system som fristående röstar för sitt eget mål, deras röster räknas sedan ihop för att uppnå önskad kurs. Båten tog första plats i World Robotic Sailing Championships 2017, där tävlingsmomenten var: att täcka en yta så bra som möjligt, att hålla sig så nära som möjligt till en position i 5 minuter, och en kapplöpning runt bojar. Arbetets struktur är följande. Först presenteras några andra liknande projekt kortfattat, sen en litterär studie om teknologin i roboten och möjliga alternativ med fokus på framdrivning och kommunikation. Sen beskrivs implementationen i båten mer detaljerat, inklusive lösningar och problem som uppstod. Till sist presenteras resultat från simulationer och World Robotic Sailing Championship 2017

eVentos 2 - Autonomous sailboat control

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresSailboat navigation started as a way to explore the world. Even though performance is significantly lower than that of a motorboat, in terms of resources, these vessels still are the best low-cost solutions. On the past, navigation depended greatly on estimates or on the stars. Nowadays it depends on precise data provided by a variety of electronic devices, independent from the user’s location. Autonomous sailboats are vessels that use only the wind for propulsion and have the capacity to control its sails and rudders without human intervention. These particularities give them almost unlimited autonomy and a very valuable ability to fulfill long term missions on the sea, such as collecting oceanographic data, search and rescue or surveillance. This dissertation presents a fuzzy logic controller for autonomous sailboats based on a proposed set of sensors, namely a GPS receiver, a weather meter and an electronic compass. Following a basic navigation approach, the proposed set of sensorswas studied in order to obtain an effective group of variables for the controller’s fuzzy sets, and rules for its rule base. In the end, four fuzzy logic controllers were designed, one for the sail(to maximize speed) and three for the rudder (in order to comply with all navigation situations). The result is a sailboat control system capable of operation in a low cost platform such as an Arduino prototyping board. Simulated results obtained from a data set of approximately 100 tests to each controller back up the theory presented for the controller’s operation, since physical experimentation was not possible

An Arduino compatible CAN Bus architecture for sailing applications

International audienceThis paper describes a Controller Area Network (CAN) Bus architecture based on Arduino compatible boards, to be used as an alternative communication system for robotic applications. This combines both, the robustness of CAN and the accessibility of Arduino software. The architecture is developed here to improve a Navigational Assistance System, which was initially created for disabled people. The system is composed of Arduino compatible boards, wired with various sensors and actuators, and communicating with an Human Machine Interface (HMI), directly accessible via a mobile phone or a tablet running on the open-source operating system Android. Information is transferred through the CAN bus architecture between multiple nodes (i.e. Arduino compatible boards) and the implementation of a CAN bootloader allows the reconfiguration of the nodes directly through the bus. The aim is to create a generic system able to work in various kinds of situations, adaptable to all kinds of users, including persons with all sorts of disabilities. This work will result in a demonstrator on a Miniji for the WRSC 2013 and an entirely joystick controlled boat for single handed sailing