Development and use of a computer controlled sailing simulation

The Virtual Sailing (VS) developed and produced ride-on sailing simulators continue to be used for research and educational purposes. This paper reports on a collaborative project between VS, the Australian Maritime College (AMC) and the University of Melbourne (UoM) which has led to the development of a computer controlled simulation (CCS) incorporated into the existing human-in-the-loop (HIL) sailing simulator. The CCS can be run on a laptop networked to the main simulator. It uses the high level numerical language Matlab communicating over a TCP/IP network to display the final results in real time. This robust setup permits its implementation on a variety of platforms and development in a number of paths. The user can sail against the CCS as another on-screen opponent, providing a link back to the HIL simulation that is the core of the active simulators. A number of numerical techniques were investigated to integrate state variables with respect to time. The methods have been analysed and an adaptive step size method has been proposed. A Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller has been implemented relating error in the vessel's heading angle to the required rudder angle for correction. The PID controller combined with efficient simulation and incorporation to an existing HIL simulator provides a powerful tool for future development and deployment of simulation technologies. Applications of this technology are described in the areas of design evaluation, sail training and manoeuvre prediction.