No Skipper Required, Pilot-less Sailboat

Robotic Sail Patrol Vessels have a lot of advantages:

Higher Power to Weight Ratios in most conditions vs Solar.

Lower Cost in Materials.

Fewer Environmental Hazards required on board.

Far easier Recover and Repair than Satellite.

Far more Effective Recon ability of an area than Satellite.


Think about it, this is a robot, if something goes wrong, do you really want a massive bank of batteries (which weigh a lot) to break up and spill into our oceans? By using wind driven Sails for primary power, you reduce the reliance on hazardous materials for energy storage. Sail driven ships can continue on at full power in the dead of night, were as a solar system must run at half power during the day to build up a charge for the night.

The unit currently displayed is a PROTOTYPE, and they are currently deploying a Production PROTOTYPE, they are still at a stage of development where they are going to find flaws and correct the design.

Units such as these are able to carry sensor packages that will be far more effective and accurate than any satellite, and far more fuel effective than any UAV. Look at the goals for these units, they're designed to patrol regions and relay information back to those that need it. Lets see a satellite system that can accurately ID a ship's hull number, and get clear photos of the crew's faces,... One that isn't from some Movie or TV show. And one that isn't easily foiled by cloud cover on the visible light spectrum.

These are also safer than UAVs, which if something goes wrong will crash land, and risk spilling large amounts of aviation fuel. A USV/UMV/USSV, however you wish to call it, can detect an error and go into protected shut down mode, that is it has just become a buoy and is of little threat to anyone, and highly unlikely to crash into your back yard.

 

Sorry but you are dead wrong about this technology being useless. The full scale AUSV will bring new capabilities to the Navy that now do not exist. It will become a very valuable ISR tool for long range and mission duration needs. The Navy does not have nearly enough surface ships and other manned assets to cover the vast areas of ocean it has interest in knowing what's out there. Will it work everywhere like the North Sea or the Southern Oceans, NO. Are the worlds ISR hot spots in those places, NO. It is designed to be fully operational in up to sea state 5 and survive sea state 7. With GFS weather routing operators will be able to avoid heavy seas and most vessels, except subs, that you are looking for will not be out in those conditions either. It is often that marine engineers underestimate the sea keeping abilities of "T" hydrofoils arranged in such a wide triangular geometry on a lightweight composite platform. Few folks have any experience in this unique area of engineering. Smaller prototypes that were built consulting with Dr. Sam Bradfield, a pioneer in the sailing hydrofoil field, showed very impressive stability characteristics. For example a 20 ft. LWL trimaran could breach the surface with all 3 foils at 25 kts. and reenter at a steep enough angle to bring the boat to a sudden dead stop without any tendency of pitch polling. If the crew was not physically holding tight on to something they usually ended up in the water 10-15 feet in front of the boat. There has been much engineering effort lately of hydrofoils being used only for high speed record attempts on sailing craft to the extent that one tends to forget about their other benefits.
Harbor Wing's full scale vessel that is now under development will utilize energy regeneration capability via solar panels and electric auxiliary motor prop. And yes, a hybrid trawler design is in discussion.
IMO in 20 years we will see hundreds of these AUSV's doing all kinds of missions from offshore oil platform security, anti piracy patrol, ASW, near coastal sea floor mapping, outer tripwire security for Navy bases and others I cant even imagine at the moment. This technology is on a development path very much like the Unmanned Air Vehicles were 20 years ago. Who would of thought we would see UAV's launching laser guided rockets and flying 24/7 surveillance patrols at 20,000 ft. I am sure there were people back in the 80's who told the Insitu engineers (whose company just sold to Boeing for 1/2 billion dollars) that their technology was useless too.

 

ala, I am safely guessing you are refering to my post when writting this nonsense:

The one not reading the site is obviously you because the whole point of their site is the wing "technology" as a whole, not the "controls". The site was re-done since these posts, but it is still clear from the name "Harbour WING Technologies". Little, if anything, is actually refering to "controls of wings". Go read the site before commenting like this.

You must be involved somehow with these garage operators. "Ala" is a "wing" in Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and every other latin-based language. Care to come clean?

Whatever you do, make sure you do not insult personally. I know it is in usanians' blood to be arrogant in their ignorance, but that is still not an excuse. And allows others to react in a similar fashion.

 

WOW where do I start Masrapido. Your first post to this subject line implies that the Harbor Wing team paid to get a bogus patent. Which if you knew about prior art in wingsail design you would know that using a twin "Y" tail arrangement is NEW AND NOVEL to CONTROL the wingsail as well as the processing algorithms written. Then you move on to call noted designers and engineers like David Hubbard, Duncan MacLane, Dr, Gabriel Elkaim, Dr. Lee Boyce and Pete Melvin of Morrelli&Melvin "garage operators". Then you top it off by calling me "arrogant and ignorant" but to use YOUR WORDS "whatever you do, make sure you do not insult personally".

Aloha

 

Im going with its vital to our ocean parks and marine sanctuaries to have methods of patrol that are economical like this thing is
they were just hyping it for the military to make a few sales
but its got merit in lots of areas

MHO
B

oh
and I have a great patent
ever try to sell a patent
its like a feeding frenzy to see who can steel it first

Masrapido nice to see you
play nice
this is a lovely thread about sailing

 

Great that it is able to steer a course and utilize the wind efficiently. Will it do any of the following?

Avoid a bouy, rock or tanker
Yield right of way
Help (or at least avoid running down) a small boat in trouble

Not criticising: just asking.

 

Given that these are intended to be sensor carriers, I think they will have just as much ability to avoid things as any robot does. And avoidance is one of the easiest aspects of advanced robotics sensory. (Actually figuring out what you are avoiding is the hard part.)

Detecting that a boat is in trouble with 100% certainty is likely beyond current robotics, but as with other types of Unmanned Smart Drones they would have a human handler to monitor the data incoming from the sensors.

The real goal of unmanned drones is to allow a single operator to deal with multiple robots, which can span the globe in locations. The robots themselves don't really need to think all that much, just avoid stuff and make a control console in some command center beep and a flashing red light when something 'odd' happens with it. Real decision making happens by humans in command, the same as with a warship. A Seaman might spot the incoming threat, but it is still an officer that gives any orders to fire.

 

Hola ala,

Start by telling the truth. I never called YOU arrogant and ignorant.

As for the "novel" etc., you are wrong. Ice skating has been using single (and double, I recall seeing photos some years back on the internet) winglets for decades now. There is a guy in Sweden that was designing and building wings with winglets for control, for example, on his ice skating sails:
http://home.swipnet.se/ansar/deve.html

A whole page dedicated to such wings with some pretty OLD examples of stabilisers added behind the sail, which clearly demonstrates that the concept has been around long before your mates "invented" it and patented:
http://www.windmek.ca/wingsail/wingsaildesigns.htm

Here's one clumsy example of a sea sailing boat with a single (stabiliser?):
http://www.solarnavigator.net/wing_sails.htm

Nothing new or novel here. The concept is quite old.

I stand behind the garage operation statement. The ideas are old, the design is old, the concept has been around for long. From one stabiliser to two is just a matter of little tinkering. Certainly no lenghty research and/or innovation are needed because it is apparent that where there is one, another may be added.

Its' use may have its' value for certain applications, but think from a military perspective for a moment. With a tall sail the boat is visible from afar. What kind of surveillance is that? The idea of surveillance is that it is invisible to intruders. Tall mast and wingsail would be a lot more efficient as a deterrent of intruders than as a surveillance device.

If one wants to actually catch an enemy, one must be invisible. Otherwise, what's the point? Electric boat with a lot lower profile would do that job a lot better. A bridge between the hulls on a multihull could be covered with solar cells and provide some power, even if only for the electronics on board.

As an idea for a recreational or competitive sailing it has better future in my view than as a military tool. And even there, we now know that there are sails with stabilisers that were designed back in 60's and 70's. Maybe even earlier. Meaning, there's nothing new or novel about the idea/concept. Adding one extra stabiliser is quite apparent next step.

 

Speaking as a former robotics engineer, I think the wingsail is used because it is easier to integrate into an autonomous vehicle than sails. From a controls perspective, by a single servo the wingsail can be set to 2 conditions to accept the wind from either beam. There is a continuous range of settings between these including a “neutral drive” condition, and a wing sail can also be used in reverse.

A wingsail with a control surface(s) such as this can be operated with reduced drive or even feathered without the thrashing of a fabric sail, although lowering sail is probably impractical. I ‘m not so sure it is better than a solar powered electric drive using a prop, which I think would be cheaper since those components are off the shelf and a lot easier to control. But hey, maybe the team leader is a sailing buff.

As well as the "harbour sized" prototype a larger ocean-going version with foils is under development. I’m not so sure how much use it will be. I can understand a need for some kind of autonomous surveillance system in high traffic areas. What would it look for in the wide oean? I doubt that these things can detect and report hazardous stuff like oil spills better than a satellite. It might work better for hazards such as floating containers which have been lost overboard in the thousands, which have been credited by some for the recent rash of keel breakages during ocean sailing races. Also, perhaps it could be a visible presence to help deter piracy along coasts, but if I were a pirate I would sink every one I see.

I don’t understand the controversy over the patent for the control system, which is the only patent that I can find mentioned in the Haborwing site.

 

If you try that against US assets, how long do you think it is before you don't hear the supersonic missile that jet just launched at you for attacking US Military equipment?


And done up in proper colours and materials, I don't think it will be all that easy to spot, these are still fairly small boats without crews.

 

What a silly thread.

 

silly is as silly does Frosty
question is
what are you doing

the autonomous craft are a great idea and will become popular for all kinds of applications IMHO
the coast guard will love these things
as will the military

Mr Kayaker your suggest of the solar powered elec drive does seem like an option although the storage technology really needs to do some catching up

check out this thread if you get a chance as we were discussing the advantages of vertical wind turbines and the problems with batteries

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/propulsion/these-turbine-alternaters-easy-make-26738.html

seems like a flywheel could be adapted as a storage device
I wonder if anyone is working in that area in regards to boating
I know they have tried it with cars but with little success

 

I wonder how much energy storage research has been devoted to the needs, problems and opportunities of boats. Weight and cooling are less of a problem than for a land vehicle, for example. Is anyone thinking outside of the box?

However, direct use of the wind makes a lot of sense. No storage losses, minimal weight, very rarely quits for long especially in coastal locations, it's there day or night, Summer or Winter, etc.

 

I keep thinking of these vawt generators used in conjunction with a flywheel system of storage and maybe wave piercing technology along with a few other tricks

the automated sails would need to be reefed from time to time and Im not seeing how a rigid sail can be easily made to accommodate that
in a serious blow how does that system hole up

 

OK Masripido I will bury the hatchet everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Luckless, you are on point if the "bad guy's" intentionally harm the AUSV they target themselves and anti-up the level of interdiction. A lot of missions will not be concerned about stealth but just the opposite probably painting the wing bright orange and having a new pattern of nav lights to indicate the vessel is unmanned. The idea being if the people you are interested in know you're around then they will go somewhere else like a police car on a patrol in a bad part of town. The vessels can carry non-leathel weapons like the LRAD acoustic device which has been proven effective against pirates or laser dazzler to temporarily blind or the Puke Light whose name says it all. The point being that there are technologies in use that will keep people away if they try to board. You can't stop shooting at the AUSV but again it is smart and knows who is attacking it.

The elevation of the top of the wing provides for a good place to mount surface radar and EO/IR camera. The vessels could reach out 20 miles with the radar to spot targets and then close to 7 miles or so to get a look with the cameras day or night.

Masripido is also on point about recreational/high performance uses or duel use. However the depressed world economy at this time makes $ for development very difficult.

Ancient kayaker, on the collision avoidance problem for robotics you are right this is very much still an R&D science. Harbor Wing will rely on others spending big dollars at the moment developing this capability. Computer Brain Based Management "BBM" which is fashioned after neuro processing has exciting potential to build a simple level of self awareness for recognizing obstacles/vessels and taking evasive action based on navigational COLREGS.
I think for starters though it will be best for the AUSV to avoid operation in high traffic areas and be pilot or escorted in and out of harbors. Humans must be kept in-the-loop at all times at workstations to monitor and be prepared to take control in a fly-by-wire mode.

On energy storage and energy scavenging this is the engineering area that will dictate the length of time the AUSV will be able to hold station or patrol. Using the wind directly as the main method of propulsion and combining that with power generation from a propeller is very efficient. Next most is solar which a wing as well as the trimaran's footprint provides large surface area for. Battery storage looks like LI-Ion phosphate type rapid charging technology is the leader at this time. And I cringe to say it but an old fashion 10k diesel electric generator and 400 gallons of diesel could go a long way at supplying power at night or when there was not enough wind or sun. In general this is also not Harbor Wing's area of expertise and they will no doubt rely on subcontractors that are advancing the state of the art.
Aloha