Autonomous sail surface boats, design and testing results of the MOUNTAINS prototype

Abstract

In previous research activities authors have developed a prototype of innovative Autonomous Sail Surface Boat, briefly called MOUNTAINS. This prototype has been the object in the last year of intense activities concerning both design and calibration that have been refined producing an enhanced version aiming to solve some limitations of the previous design that are more generally a clear innovation respect to the state of art of existing sail drones. The most important innovation is represented by an innovative configuration of sails which is able, in conjunction with a revised version of the control system, to assure higher and more robust performances of the vessel respect to different operating conditions. Proposed solution have been tested experimentally at Renai Lakes and obtained results are also described in this work.