{"id":35675,"date":"2017-10-13T11:47:23","date_gmt":"2017-10-13T15:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/?p=35675"},"modified":"2017-10-13T11:47:23","modified_gmt":"2017-10-13T15:47:23","slug":"robot-sailboat-sailbot-wpi-students-build-award-winning-autonomous-sailboat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2017\/10\/robot-sailboat-sailbot-wpi-students-build-award-winning-autonomous-sailboat.html","title":{"rendered":"Robot + Sailboat = SailBOT:  WPI Students Build Award-winning Autonomous Sailboat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This summer I learned a new word: \u201cSailbot.\u201d I never knew there was such a thing, much less a competition for an autonomous sailboat, but there is\u2026and it\u2019s very impressive.\u00a0 Apparently there are 12 challenges that the sailboat must complete during this student competition.\u00a0 The most amazing part is that the boat (or bot) must constantly read the wind and change the sail based upon this input.\u00a0 But, according to Hans Johnson, a senior at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) majoring in Mechanical and Robotics Engineering, the most difficult part of the entire project is keeping all of the boat\u2019s components dry.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-35685 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/20170611_155451-615x461.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"615\" height=\"461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/20170611_155451-615x461.jpg 615w, https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/20170611_155451-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/20170611_155451-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/20170611_155451-728x546.jpg 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 615px) 100vw, 615px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I was very impressed with all of the work and thought that had to go into this project, from the design of the hull, sails, as well as the internal components, gears and electronics.\u00a0 I thought back to my design days in college, and we had to build realistic prototypes, but that\u2019s all they were, non-working prototypes. These students, however, have a full working boat with electronics, robotics, and gears: a full mechatronic smart product.<\/p>\n<p>We had a chance to interview Hans and Nick Gigliotti, a recent WPI graduate, who built the boat together.\u00a0 They provide more inside details about the project in this short video:<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-container\">\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1140\" height=\"641\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KKtxU7aWZsI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>I suspect more engineering students and universities will follow WPI\u2019s lead and develop more smart products, as this is the where the industry is heading.\u00a0 I look forward to seeing them, and possibly learning more new words.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about how SOLIDWORKS is working with companies to develop the next-generation<a href=\"https:\/\/smart.solidworks.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong> Smart Products, go here<\/strong>&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/smart.solidworks.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/sw_design_of_smart_things_banner_961x250_final.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"703\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This summer I learned a new word: \u201cSailbot.\u201d I never knew there was such a thing, much less a competition for an autonomous sailboat, but there is\u2026and it\u2019s very impressive.\u00a0 Apparently there are 12 challenges that the sailboat must complete<\/p>\n... <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2017\/10\/robot-sailboat-sailbot-wpi-students-build-award-winning-autonomous-sailboat.html\">Continued<\/a>","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":35685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,14,17,18],"tags":[2117,19],"class_list":["post-35675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-stories","category-design","category-education","category-solidworks","tag-mechatronics","tag-solidworks-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}