The Microtransat Challenge 2007 is a robotic competition where robotic sailboats are required to autonomously navigate themselves through choppy oceanic courses of virtual bouys and unpredictable winds. We covered the kickoff on September 3.
Today, a final decision naming the victor was announced in an email from Melanie Landamore:
Microtransat Challenge, Aberystwyth, September 2007.
We are very pleased to announce that the overall winners of this event were the RoBoat team from Austria. This team demonstrated true Autonomous sailing for the full 24 hour period of the challenge and a very robust control system. The physical craft, however, will almost certainly need some serious modification for a Transatlantic challenge. All the teams should be commended for their dedication and hard work.
It was unfortunate that, due to software issues, the judges were unable to witness the full potential of the ENSICA boat from France.
The Aberystwyth boat was considered to have the greatest potential in the context of the overall challenge, to cross the Atlantic autonomously. They achieved a very respectable 19 hours autonomous sailing.
The MAST team from Canada are commended for physical craft design and build quality. This craft sailed very well in calmer conditions and a larger version could do very well in a Transatlantic challenge.
Congratulations to all the competitors, and good luck with your modifications, preparations and fundraising for the main event!
Melanie Landamore and Julian Eastwood
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Melanie Landamore
Research AssociateMarine Science and Technology
University of Newcastle, NE1 7RUEmail: m.j.landamore@ncl.ac.uk
Here’s a video of RoBoat performing some cool maneuvers. I’m especially impressed with the behavior demonstrated starting at position 2:23 where RoBoat steers in a circle and returns to its starting point against the wind.
I’m from the Roboat team and just want to mention, that the boat in the video is our prototype which won the Microtransat 2007 in Toulouse/France. The new Roboat is about 4m long. You can find some pics and a video clip on http://www.roboat.at