A group of Swiss students claims to have developed a "robot sailing boat", which can sail to any given destination completely autonomously.
According to its developers, the unmanned Avalon robot sailing boat has a software programme which enables it to sail by itself -- in fact, it's tailored to suit all the conditions an unmanned vessel will be exposed to on the open seas.
And, Avalon, which has had a taste of the water on Lake Zurich recently, is due to set sail for the Caribbean from Ireland to participate in the International Microtransat Challenge 2009.
"We believe that this will give us a crucial advantage over many of the other contenders in the challenge," Hendrik Erckens, who heads the project, said.
The eight ETH Zurich students have designed Avalon using state-of-the-art techniques and built it themselves.
The only requirement stipulated by the Challenge organisers was the length of the boat, which should not exceed four meters.
The students were pretty much given a free hand in the rest -- the choice of material, the shape of the hull and keel, right down to the shape, mounting and helm of the mast and sail -- everything was reassessed and optimised for an unmanned robot sailing boat.
At the same time, the developers determined which individual components they would use for electronic sensors and subsystems, and developed the controlling circuit, solar power supply, batteries and fuel cells.
Now, all that remains is for the corresponding computer programmes to be completed and tested.
