Another autonomous self righting multihull drone

The company website for Autonomous Marine Systems:

http://www.automarinesys.com/technology/

http://youtu.be/zyw7LjytQxI

 

Thanks Corely-very interesting. There was an rc cat that was sold back in the 90's that used that same system for righting. I imagine it would have a hard time righting from upside down-before I bought it I would want to be assured that it could right itself from inverted.

 

Looking at how this works and thinking back to that Firebird Catamaran, maybe quick (but controlled) release shrouds is the answer to capsize prevention/recovery.
The key is in the mast not sinking me thinks, so another plus for the wing mast (sealed) !

 

It would be interesting to see what happened after it met the waves from those two powerboats at 0:48, did it capsize and how did the self-righting mechanism perform.

 

The stabilized monohull, Saildrone, looks more sturdy by design. It does lack the rather large solar panels, though. The boards in both designs seem to be problematic when navigating in kelp and other floating stuff.

With such a wing setup a proa seems to combine many other advantages. It has the horizontal surface for solar panels; an asymmetric leeward hull could replace the need for a board sticking down; a pod extending the lee side of the leeward hull would make it easily self righting; small, rotating down at fixed angle rudders in each end of the leeward hull is mechanically simpler and only have the rudders stick down when course corrections are called for; shunting is no disadvantage on these long course missions and probably simplifies automatic steering.