The Southampton Sailing Robot Team has won the 2016 聽(WRSC), microsailboat class in Viana do Castelo, Portugal.
The team of nine students from , ranging from interns, undergraduate and PhD students to post docs, who entered the competition for the first time, developed a 1m long robot and programmed it to perform several autonomous tasks.
Competing against seven other teams, they took second place in both the position keeping and area scanning, and first place in obstacle avoidance, giving them an overall position of first place in the micro sailboat class.
Team Leader Sophia Schillai聽said: 鈥淚t was a week that was equal parts challenging, exciting, excruciating and rewarding.聽We鈥檝e made our mistakes, but we鈥檝e definitely learned a ton.聽We鈥檒l be coming back next year armed with way more knowledge than ever.
鈥淲e are very grateful to everyone who supported us, especially contributors to our crowd funding campaign, the University Education Enhancement Fund and the organisers of the competition.鈥�
A more detailed description of the team鈥檚 adventures can be found on their聽, together with details of the software and the boat build.
With many new ideas, they are starting their preparations for the next competition. New members are welcome to join from the beginning of the new term. Meetings are every Thursday from 18:00, with more information available soon on the blog.
