Imagine trying to teach a robot to sail. That is exactly what this group of students had to do when they entered the first international autonomous sailboat competition, hosted here on the Chesapeake Bay. They retro-fitted a standard, small, sailboat with digital sensors such as GPS, a compass and wind speed indicators. All that information was fed into an on-board computer which controlled various motors to adjust the rudder and sails.Our team, which consisted of systems majors and naval architects, placed second in this international competition!
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