FEUP Autonomous Sailboat (FASt)

FASt (FEUP Autonomous Sailboat) is a small scale autonomous unmanned sailboat that is being developed at FEUP (Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Portugal) to participate in the Microtransat competition.

Microtransat was lauched in 2006 by professors Mark James Neal (University of Aberystwyth, UK) and Yves Brière (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Constructions Aéronautiques - ENSICA and IUT, Nantes, France) to stimulate the development of fully autonomous sailing boats. The final objective is a transatlantic race, presently planned for October 2008, starting from the west coast of Portugal.

The FASt project is supported by the Electrical and Computer Department of the School of Engineering of the University of Porto (DEEC of FEUP) and is being developed by a team of professors and students of FEUP. The boat was built from scratch in composite materials, with the valuable help of a Portuguese kayak builder, located in Crestuma, north of Portugal (www.elio-kayaks.com). The design was inspired on modern racing oceanic yachts and was developed with the free version of the boat design software DelftShip (former FreeShip). The hull bottom at the stern is flat to induce planning and the boat has a deep keel with ballast. The rig is a standard Marconi configuration with a small jib mounted on a boom, as used in smaller RC sailing boats.

The FEUP sailboat will be capable of fully autonomous navigation, controlled by a small embedded computer, various sensors and electric motors to adjust rudders and sails. Electric power source is a combination of a solar panel and conventional electric batteries. Communications for data logging and emergency control rely on a satellite data modem and for short range control and monitoring the boat also has a WiFi connection and a conventional radio-control

In addition to the Microtransat competition, this exercise will enable us to gain competences in the area of autonomous sailing navigation. We hope, in a near future, to be able to offer flexible platforms capable of long range navigation and adequate for supporting various applications like data acquisition, tracking wild life or even surveillance.