How AI may enable autonomous yachting
Technology moves at a breathtaking speed. In under 100 years we’ve gone from massive vacuum tube cabinets struggling with sums to figurative supercomputers sitting in our pockets. Tech shows no signs of slowing down, especially now we’ve entered the AI era.
This has impacted every industry, and yachting is no different. Artificial Intelligence is particularly groundbreaking for electric and renewable-energy-powered vessels, such as sailing yacht Zero. In these situations, being smart about energy management is of the utmost importance, as you have to navigate the constraints of limited power.
In other words, AI helps answer the most critical question: how long will my battery last?
It can’t do this alone though. It needs good data. And, to get good data, you need sensors. These should measure everything — from cabin temperature to sunlight intensity — including as many data points as possible for the energy prediction model to work.
This is what Zero does. But the model goes beyond just tracking data, it builds an understanding of what works in different situations to ensure energy is balanced across all different aspects of the boat. Whenever it goes sailing, every detail of the journey (think of cylinder positions and wave patterns) is monitored so that the next time the vessel is in a similar setting, it knows exactly which configurations produce the best results.
The goal? Not only to help guide future yacht design, but also shift towards more automation. If you can achieve automatic trimming, a boat can be created that handles the entire sailing chain while the crew relaxes.
If you want to know more, you can watch the presentation below:
