So what is Robot Yacht all about?

Robot Yacht is a project to build a control system for a fully autonomous sailing yacht. Robot Yacht has been given the theoretical challenge to sail around the Island of Corsica, unmanned. This like a water based equivalent of a UAV such as the Reaper (used by the British and American Forces during the second Gulf War) which is essentially a glorified remote control aeroplane.

Robot Yacht will ‘think’ for itself. It should be capable of navigation, harnessing wind power to provide motor function, cope with whatever the weather throws at it and avoid other vessels all by itself, with little or no human intervention.

So what will be Robot Yacht’s brain? Something pretty darn powerful you’d expect, but there comes another problem. Robot Yacht must be able to get all of its power requirements for its onboard systems from the sun (Solar Panels) and wind (Wind Turbine). This means that the on board computer systems must be as energy efficient as possible. 

And the solution, drum roll please, is PC Engines Alix system…