Experimental automatic steering control in a real-scale boat

Summary

The main goal of Work Package 2 of the Field Lab Autonomous Sailing Technology (FAST) project is to realize an autonomous shipping platform to be used for research and education purposes. To attain this goal, the HZ University of Applied Sciences teamed with its main project partner in this journey, the Research lab. Autonomous Shipping (RAS) based at the Delft University of Technology. Several streams of work were defined in the early stages of the project tackling different aspects of autonomous shipping: 1) Upgrading lab autonomous fleets used in the Master curriculums or Maritime technology and Mechatronics; 2) Applied research on machine object recognition (aka, situational awareness); 3) Creation by students or staff of small and real scale boats with track pilot capabilities and automatic control systems. This report describes the key design aspects of a real-scale automatic steering boat and the results of the first field experiments. It also sets the next steps for the continuation of this track within the HZ University of Applied Sciences.