AutoSail is a student project where twelve M.Sc.Eng students will develop an autonomous sailing boat with the goal to compete in WRSC 2021.
We are twelve Master of Science in Engineering students from Mälardalens University in Västerås, Sweden. We are working on our final project of our last year at the Robotics, Dependable systems and Embedded systems programs. An autonomous sailing boat will be developed and the goal is to compete in WRSC(World Robotic Sailing Championships) in 2021.
The Robotics program covers robotics applied in different fields with focus on the Sense-Plan-Act methodology. The courses of the program include everything from mechanics and electronics to signal processing and artificial intelligence with many of the courses being practical. The last year the students knowledge which includes building and controlling robots are used in the final project, provided either by a company or by Mälardalen university itself.
This project is provided by Mikael Ekström, Professor in robotics at Mälardalen university, and supported by STINT. The purpose of this project is to enter the WRSC, which is a competition for autonomous sailboats, and give us students an opportunity to apply our knowledge within robotics and autonomous vehicles on a real platform with an explicit goal. The goal is to develop an autonomus sailing boat. The boat is to be powered by solar cells and should be able to plan and follow the best available course from given way point data. To compete in the WRSC the boat must also be able to detect, localise and avoid obstacles.
As the competition rules for the WRSC states, everything needs to be open-source. Follow the link below take part of everything the team has made, from software to CAD-models.
GitHubSome "components/softwares/hardwares" used in this project.
A friendly and easy to use programming language that speeds up the development time and effectively integrate the system
A lightweight open-source operating system which are commonly used in single-board computers
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is a name for all the satellite systems, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou. It is used to determine the position of the vessel by using signal from satellites
A wind vane is a sensor that reads the direction of the wind. This is necessary to properly adjust the sails of the vessel
Vision capabilities are implemented to gather information about the environment, to create obstacle avoidance, and to read a AprilTag
Making use of solar power makes the vessel sufficient giving it long voyage capability
MapViz is a tool used to visualize 2d data. It is ROS-based making it easily integrable into our system
A powerful single board computer with an ARM processor that is able to run operating system such as linux and android
Contribute to the project by sharing your ideas and experiences with the team.
Contact us!I am an easy-going guy that always says what he thinks. Being the youngest member of the team I have spent my entire life behind a school desk so this project for me represents a chance to make use of what I have learned and create something from scratch. If my time within this team is any indication of what it’s like working as an engineer then I am excited for the rest of my life.
Casper Adlerteg Software Engineer
I am a positive and driven woman that puts the team before myself. Beyond my engineering knowledge I help the team by creating an organized and well-structured environment. My interests lie with hardware more than software as it relates to engineering. On my free time I am a dedicated floorball keeper for Rönnby Västerås and play in the second highest league in Sweden.
Emma Frisk Hardware Team Leader
With a great passion for new experiences and knowledge, I’m a forward and driven person with a lot of energy and new ideas. My interest for art mirrors my organised way of working and contributes with those qualities to the group in addition to my engineering skills. I’m also a dedicated eventing rider on International level which is how I spend my spare time.
Julia Looström Hardware Engineer
My passion for programming and computer science has the opportunity to grow in this project and I contribute with those skills to the group along with my engineering knowledge. I’m always looking for new knowledge and thrives when I get a problem to solve. I spend my spare time together with my dog and playing games with friends.
Patrik Forsslund Software Team Leader
Loving husband with a wonderful daughter and another on the way, where I am used to responsibility both from my private life and former workplaces. Being a project manager for something as complex as this is a first for me, but with my gathered life experiences and with the help from my team I am confident that we will succeed in creating a fully autonomous sailing boat.
Simon Monié Project manager
I worked several years before studying and gotten a lot of experience of different work environments. With a great curiosity for software programming, the AutoSail project will be a fun challenge.
Adem Sen Software Engineer
I am part of the software team on the boat and am driven by a great interest in robotics and computer vision. I love the groups dynamics and my coworkers. It is a joy to come to work every day.
Jakob Norin Software Engineer
With an interest in dependability, the role of requirements manager comes quite naturally. For me, this is an opportunity to express my knowledge and open up a path towards a PhD within dependability and work in a project with competent members I can trust. I am always excited for new challenges and look forward to facing them together with the team in Autosail.
Johan Bergelin Requirements Manager
A self-motivated student, with a passion for the aerospace industry and a great interest in systems engineering. My work is within the verification domain in the project; I will help others to fulfil our requirements through analysis and testing, something that I enjoy carrying out. During my free time, going to the gym and cooking Italian food is on my go-to list but friends are also very dear to me and spending time with them is invaluable.
Hubert Stepien Validation and Verification Manager
One can never stop learning; this is why my life philosophy is lifelong learning and studying to broaden my horizons. Combining hardware and software is what excites me the most as an engineering student; the role of safety manager lets me evaluate both. During my free time, I have been building a campervan and plan to travel the world for new experiences and adventures together with my loving partner.
Martin Bilger Safety Manager
With my background in Network Communication, the role of Communication Manager was a natural choice. I believe my knowledge supplement the rest of the group, and that we can learn a lot from each other. The AutoSail project will be an exciting challenge as it is the first time I get the chance to work in a group and on a project of this size. I'm eager to face the challenges together with the AutoSail team.
David Pantzar Communication Manager
I'm a bonus dad of two young kids and my interests are in tech, cars and astrophotography. I have a background in the automotive industry, which I use to our advantage in our quality work.
David Eklund Quality Manager