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Sailing Auto Pilot - Competition - Ready For Tomorrow 2022

Farnell partners with sailor Alberto Riva to redevelop a Nautical Autopilot image

Alberto Riva is a multi-competition winning skipper who always had a passion for sailing since he was a child.

With the support of many different sponsors, he has sailed on a variety of boats from smaller centreboard boats to 70ft long flying trimarans, on board of which he competed many different regattas.i

He now has an eye on a new dream: the Mini Transat - a 4050 nautical miles solo race on the smallest offshore racing boats at only 6.50m long. A challenge that requires not only competence and resilience, but also a sound mind.

Far from being only a sailing passionate and competitor, indeed, Alberto is also a trained engineer who worked as data analyst and on-board electronics expert for the preparation of other racing boats. With a master in nanotechnologies, he also developed an auto-pilot board during his studies

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The auto-pilot is an element that he defines “his best friend” during sailing, as it allows him to leave the wheel and rest or focus on weather conditions especially on demanding regattas like the Transat, where one-person sailing and no phone/computer or technical support aside from tracking are the main requirements.

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Interface for AutoPilot 

In light of all the characteristics that distinguish this challenge, such as passion, determination, performance, resilience and technology, Farnell decided to partner with Alberto and help him by opening the project up to our open-source design community to redesign his autopilot. As technologies develop further and faster, we are confident that our electronics enthusiasts could highly improve it to achieve higher performances with better cost efficiency.

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Among the improvements Alberto would add, he would certainly focus on changing the current screen (which was an additional cost on the overall system) in favour of taking advantage of new smart phone technologies. Connecting a smart phone to the automatic navigation system could allow to cut a big part of development and budget effort, as it would allow to use the embedded characteristics of modern displays such as waterproofness and mechanical resistance, and make it further flexible and efficient.

Join Alberto in his challenge!

Auto Pilot Components

What do you need for a boat to sail its self? 

The autopilot is made by two parts: The data acquisition and the control part.
Several sensor are connected to the system to perform the vectorial calculation of the wind and gain information about the heading of the boat: IMU compass, wind sensor, boat speed sensor and a rudder sensor.

The calculated variables are used to keep the boat on a particular true wind angle or on a particular course. Two nested PID controllers allow the boat to keep the desired route moving the rudder through a linear actuator.

The first PID calculates the desired rudder angle. The second PID, thanks to the rudder angle sensor feedback, drives the motor of the actuator to the desired rudder angle.

The first controller can be set to follow a particular reference: TWA (True Wind Angle), AWA (Apparent Wind Angle), Internal Gyro Compass (preferred choice), Fixed Rudder Angle (debugging purpose).

 

Ancient mariners would tie the rudder with a rope but this could run them into rocks in their sleep. 
Alberto has used electronics to monitor the wind, position and control it all with an Arduino 

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Components 

Learn more about the components used in this build

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Arduino Max232 Driver Interface 12v-5v DC to DC Converter H-Bridge Motor Drivers Resistors 

Arduino

 Driver Interfaces DC to DC Converters Motor Drivers Resistors

Are you ready for Tomorrow? 

Competition

Global Competition
Winner
 		 Australia and New Zealand
Winner
 

India
Winner
 

 Greater China
(China, Taiwan, Hong Kong)
Closed

 ASEAN
(Singapore, Malaysia, Phillipines, Vietnam, Thailand) + Korea
Winner
 
image image image image image

 

Enter our "Ready for Tomorrow" competition for a chance to win a prize from our prize pool

Multicomp Pro Handheld Oscilloscope - Hand Held Oscilloscope
Multicomp Pro PC USB Oscilloscope - USB Oscilloscope
Multicomp Pro Soldering Station - Soldering Station

Mulitcomp Pro Handheld Multimeter - Multimeter


Details of your answers and contact details can be shared with element14 Avnet Group

 

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    That's a great suggestion. Since, Alberto wants to use the smartphone screen, having wireless connectivity will make it easier to display all the sensor values from the Arduino nano RP2040

  • in reply to rsjawale24

    Just for fun Slight smile I'll throw the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect into the mix. More expensive than the Pico but has WiFi allowing instant connectivity to the Smart Phone HMI. Although it still looks cheaper to go with the likes of a ESP module connected to the Pico.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    You are right, but as mentioned, it is a DIY project and has to be cost-effective, The above-mentioned Arduinos are quite costly as compared to the Pi Pico. :)

    An UNO is not the right MCU for critical applications, Pi Pico is more reliable at the same price that of a duplicate UNO with much better processing capabilities.

  • in reply to rsjawale24

    "...For example, an Arduino has a 10-bit inbuilt ADC which means the voltage levels of the external signal can be quantized to only 2^10 = 1024 levels..."

    Some Arduinos would appear to have 12-bit and 16-bit ADCs:

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    https://www.arduino.cc/reference/en/language/functions/zero-due-mkr-family/analogreadresolution/

  • Amazing project and achievement, congrats! Perhaps an animatronic Wilson to keep you company 

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  • If I were on a ship I would want to have the information close to me. I would like to be able to consult it from my watch.
    I would add the capacity for BLE communication to the autopilot with a simple protocol that allows providing data from any sensor.
    And then from an android watch allow to consult the different variables.
    It is a very simple development to carry out. An Arduino nano 33 BLE could be used in the autopilot.
    To monitor, a small development based on the Arduino Nicla ME Sense could also be used with a LiPo battery and a small black and white OLED screen instead of the Android wristwatch

  • Since many members have already suggested various sensors/changes and upgrades to Alberto's design, I would like to suggest a few more changes in the core component of the design. A Raspberry Pi Pico can serve as a much better alternative to the Arduino and can replace the main MCU of the system without adding to the cost and overall size of the system. Owing to the Pi Pico's 32-bit architecture and the various GPIO pins and ADC along with SPI, UART, I2C controllers, it will ensure that the calculations required for the PID controllers and the control of the actuator (for auto-pilot) using feedback from sensors can be done much faster and efficient way. Think of this as the ECU of the car or the ADAS in modern vehicles. The core component needs to take fast decisions as any delay could prove to be fatal. By using a Pi Pico, the auto-pilot system can become more powerful where it can handle complex data processing and make faster decisions as compared to an Arduino.

    For example, an Arduino has a 10-bit inbuilt ADC which means the voltage levels of the external signal can be quantized to only 2^10 = 1024 levels whereas a Pi Pico has 12 bit ADC which means, 2^12 = 4096 levels. This allows a much finer resolution for the sensor signals and leaves less margin for error which is crucial for any auto-pilot system. 
    Along with this, a reliable source of power is also needed. Solar and wind energy could be the best options given that it is a boat sailing on open water.  Last but not least, an underwater ultrasonic sensor to detect any underwater rocks or debris which could prove fatal for the boat if it hits them. 
    I'm assuming that the cost and the size will remain almost the same as Pi Pico is cheap and an ultrasonic sensor doesn't cost very high and is easy to interface.

  • I see many very useful comments have already been added. So maybe, in addition, you should also monitor the critical parts on the yacht that could cause catastrophic failure if broken. As such strain gauges, or alternative force/torsion sensors required for mast, cleets, keel, rudder and sails etc. Monitoring for sudden boom sway (i.e. accidental gybe) may also be helpful.

  • in reply to ralphjy

    WiFi / Bluetooth range from a mobile phone on a boat will be pretty limited. Once again not many network access points within range mid Atlantic.

    A sat phone is very different though as is the likes of Lora which could in theory allow ship-to-ship as good line-of-sight over several kilometres.

    I assume that the spirit of the race is 'lone sailor' like the historical days, so presumably localised technology such as autopilot is ok.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    I did see that - the phone exclusion was clear, I did not know how to interpret the specifics of the rest of it as autopilot is allowed.

    I would assume the WiFi on the phone would also need to be disabled - but not Bluetooth?  There’s probably a specific ruling on use of smart phones in non cellular mode.