Thursday, September 04, 2014

Galway, Ireland Helping to Bring Robopocalypse for Sailors

Fully autonomous and unmanned sailing boats will be racing across Galway Harbour from 9-13 September, when Galway City hosts the seventh World Robotic Sailing Championship (WRSC).

The boats, up to 2.5 metres in length, will compete over a series of short-distance races, navigation and autonomy challenges, such as accuracy, endurance, co-operation, obstacle avoidance, target tracking, and speed in different conditions.

Teams from Galway, Wales, the US, Finland, France, Portugal and Russia will participate in the event, which Ireland is hosting for the first time.

The WRSC also highlights the potential of robotic sailing, in terms of long-range and long-term autonomous wind-propelled, solar or wave-powered carbon-neutral devices, and how the devices can help monitor environmental, ecological, meteorological, hydrographic and oceanographic data, as well as be used in security, traffic monitoring, and assistance and rescue.

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