Sailing is an ancient form of sustainable navigation. Emerging robotic sailing technology is gaining increased interest due to its potential in providing a continuous access to ocean data at low cost. Unmanned sailing, however, is a challenging task that involves complex dynamic interactions between the vessel and its environment. To make the sailing platform more easily available, and to develop and share our design with educators, hobbyists and researchers, we have made the application available as an open-source project.

The Robot Sailing Team consisits of students from across different faculties of the University of Southampton. In 2016 we entered the World Robotics Sailing Champioonship and won first place in the Micro Sailing Boat class. To achieve this win we had to participate in a number of challenges, including racing, area scanning and collision avoidance.