Renato’s paper on adaptive takeoff optimization was accepted for publication at the Journal of Sailing Technology, 1/2022.
Rodriguez, R., Wang, Y., Ozanne, J., Sumer, D., Filev, D., Soudbakhsh, D., “Adaptive Takeoff Maneuver Optimization of a Sailing Boat for America’s Cup”, Journal of Sailing Technology, 2022.
Abstract: This paper presents the development of optimal takeoff maneuvers for an AC75 foiling sailboat competing in the oldest and most prestigious sailboat competition in the world, America’s Cup. The AC75 sailboat presents many challenges to developing these optimal maneuvers due to its nonlinear, high-dimensional, and highly unstable dynamics. During the takeoff maneuver, the boat starts in the water with low speed (displacement mode) and increases its speed until it reaches steady-state foiling (the hull stays out of the water). We optimized the time for the boat’s transitions from displacement mode to foiling mode while maximizing the projection of the velocity in the desired target direction (VMG). We used an adaptive control approach to obtain these optimal maneuvers, which involved using a high-fidelity sailboat simulator for data generation and Jacobian learning for optimization. The optimal solutions were subject to value and rate constraints based on the physical limitations of the actuators, as well as the constraints enforced by human (sailors) abilities to perform such maneuvers. The optimal takeoff maneuver had an average VMG of 7.42 [m/s], the boat reached the desired takeoff velocity in 14.8 [s] and completed the entire maneuver in 36.4 [s]. The optimal solutions provide insightful information about the dynamic behavior of this complex system and serve as benchmarks for the sailors.