Due to the extremely vast area of the maritime environment, autonomous robotic systems have been heavily demanded to reduce risk to human and increase efficiency. A large number of such demands remain on the marine surface, such as ocean upper layer observation, pollution detection, patrolling, and communication. Vastness of the ocean has placed significant challenges on marine surface robots for long-term operation, especially from perspectives of energy. Sailing robots can contribute significantly to maritime surface exploration, due to its potential for long-range and long-duration motions in the environment with abundant wind.

We have explored sailing robot with various sizes, including mini sailboats for educational purpose with controlled wind field and indoor water pool, and large-scaled sailboat with capability of long-term marine test. Risk avoidance is also investigated to make the robot safer.

1. Mini sailboat with STAr (Sailboat Test Arena)

We have developed various mini sailboats in length of about 30cm -1m, and established a shareable, inexpensive, easy operated, efficient and remotely accessible test platform, named Sailboat Test Area (STAr). STAr has three remotely accessible modes.

Figure 1. STAr architecture and user interface

From the local experiments, Various research topics have been conducted in STAr. Through a large number of local and remote experiments, the feasibility, robustness and high efficiency of STAr have been verified.