The first attempted crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by a robotic sailing boat is underway.
Pinta, a 3 metre robotic sailing boat developed by a team of scientists at the Department of Computer Science at Aberystwyth University, was launched off the coast of County Kerry in Ireland on Saturday 11th September 2010.
Based on the popular Topper Taz sailing boat, Pinta is the brainchild of robot scientist and sailing enthusiast Dr Mark Neal and bears the name of one of the ships used by Christopher Columbus for his first crossing of the Atlantic in 1492.
However, the modern day Pinta has little if anything in common with its illustrious predecessor and features a Gumstix computer, solar panels, around 30kg of batteries, a sail winch, tiller actuator and a 25kg keel bulb.
The launch is part of The Microtransat Challenge http://www.microtransat.org/ which aims to stimulate the development of robotic sailing boats by challenging teams to build a completely autonomous boat and control system capable of sailing across the Atlantic Ocean using wind power alone.
The challenge is to be the first to cross the finish line of 60 degrees West, between 10 and 25 degrees North, just east of the Caribbean island of Martinique.
As of 11am today, 13th September 2010 Pinta, which transmits data hourly via a satellite transmitter, was in a position approximately 20 miles west-north-west off Mizen Head.
However Dr Neal is rather pessimistic about Pinta’s prospects as weather conditions off western Ireland are rapidly deteriorating. “It seems unlikely that Pinta will survive for more than a few days, but hopes are high and spirits are good! Pinta has already survived for nearly 48 hours in the worst conditions that any sailing robot has experienced (3m breaking waves and up to 27 knots of wind),” he said.
“At this point it could well turn out to be the world’s first robotic sailing boat shipwreck!”, he added.
Pinta’s progress can be followed online at http://www.microtransat.org/tracking.php.
If Pinta were to survive the next few days of storms and manage to claw her way off the Irish coast then her final destination is the Caribbean and the crossing should take at least 3 months.
