FEUP/INESC TEC autonomous vessels win international competition
A team formed by researchers from INESC TEC’s Centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CROB), and by professors and students of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), have participated in the 7th International Robotic Sailing Conference (IRSC), which included the World Robotic Sailing Championship (WRSC), where the team won two of the most important rounds.
The FEUP/INESC TEC team participated in the competition with the autonomous vessels FASt and Laser ASV. FASt won the fleet race and the endurance race, and came second in the general classification of its class. The Laser ASV was also second in the micro sailboats class, even though it did not participate in all rounds.
According to José Carlos Alves, team leader and researcher at CROB, “even though there were some setbacks caused by failures in the autonomous vehicles’ systems and some flaws in the event’s organisation, the participation of the Portuguese team has been clearly positive.” Moreover, “the experience that the students gained was an asset to their training as engineers, and a source of motivation for future bolder projects in this domain”, he adds. The CROB team also included Nuno Cruz. The vessels were prepared for this competition over the last few months, with the support of FEUP, INESC TEC and the Association for Communications, Electronics, and Information Systems for Professionals (AFCEA Portugal).
At the IRSC conference, the members of INESC TEC and FEUP also presented an application developed for programming and supervising autonomous sailboat missions. Here, the students also showcased the two vessels with which the team participated. Simultaneously to the conference, there was also an exhibition of autonomous vehicles at the WRSC, “which was an excellent opportunity for the teams present to share ideas and experiences”, José Carlos Alves concluded.
The conference and the competition took place in Galway, Ireland, between 7 and 13 September.
The INESC TEC researchers mentioned in this article are associated with the following partner institutions: FEUP.
