AberSailBot

SailBot is a university society I joined in my first year. We build and race self-driving robot sailboats.

I joined the society as it seemed like a really interesting challenge to build robots that had to deal with the insane variety of variables the outside world offers. Especially in the ocean where you rely on those variables to perform even basic movement. It felt like a good chance to try and learn to program machines that had to learn and work with those concepts.

First Year

I spent the first year in a team of 3 building a small boat we called "floating point". We started from a polystyrene hull and had to do a number of steps to build it, none of which any of us had any experience with:

• Coating the hull in resin
• Sewing a sail
• Designing and 3D printing mechanisms for steering
• Writing ESP32 code to run it using a digital compass and GPS

We were building these along with other teams, the idea being at the end of the building period they would be tested and raced. By the end of the year only our team and one other had finished our boats so we tested them in a less competitive manner in still water at the local docks. Our boat failed to find a GPS connection and was unable to steer itself but the developer from the other team lent us his software which allowed us to still compete.

Second Year

In my second year at SailBot we're currently collecting new members and teaching them the basics with the hope to eventually finish and re-race the boats from last year when the winter weather calms down.

Our current project is wiring up and programming a small unused RC-Laser found in our storage using a Raspberry Pi with an Arduino as a servo and sensor controller, communicating over serial.

Additionally to this we are intending to join The International Robotic Sailing Regatta race in Massachusetts at lake Attitash later in 2024. For this we're repairing and renovating an old bot build pre-covid at the uni named Dewi.

Learning

Before SailBot I'd never worked with physical mediums such as resin and wood outside of 3D printing. Carving out the hull and coating it, along with designing and sewing the sail was an amazing experience for me and taught me a great amount. The team I work with within the society are lovely people and at this point close friends.