Call for Papers - Applied Sciences - Special Issue in "Robotic sailing and suppor technologies"

[Antonio C. Domínguez Brito]

Dear all,

We have been invited to make a Special Issue for the journal Applied Sciences (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci). The topic is  of the Special issue is "Robotic sailing and support technologies". The Special Issue will fit in the journal's Computer and Artificial Intelligence section.

We think this can be a good opportunity to give more visibility to the works of the groups that have been working in robotic sailing in the last years, and which assist regularly to the WRSC and IRSC.

We include next an outline of the topics and focus of the Special Issue.

Environmental monitoring of certain aquatic environments, from littoral to extensive Marine Protected Areas in high seas, is still mainly done with manned vessels or moored buoys or sensing platforms. The development and implementation of legal commitments on aquatic environments under the governmental jurisdiction is often limited or even impeded by factors as the extension of these areas, difficult weather conditions, and –finally – the cost of the human and technical means required.

Autonomous vessels, and in particular sailing robots, may reduce the cost of ocean data acquisition as platforms for collecting all kind of information, from meteorological and oceanographic data, to ecological and environmental information. Other applications of great interest for those monitoring platforms are marine traffic and pollution control, security, surveillance and rescue, to name a few.

Autonomous sailing vessels constitute an ideal platform for data acquisition in water natural environments. Moreover, being wind-propelled, they offer a potential for long term operation in the ocean, given the considerable reduction of power consumption they need for navigation. In addition, this reduced energy demand makes them especially suited for being full solar-powered.

An ideal requirement for autonomous sailing vessels is to be able to perform adequately in “under-control” operating conditions, for extended periods of time in very demanding and changing environments. Consequently, long term autonomy poses a fundamental problem in autonomous sailing as in many areas of research in robotics. This requirement obviously demand robust and seafaring boat designs, which can withstand rough oceanic conditions, but also dynamic path and route planning capacities on-board, to adapt to changing sea, wind and weather conditions. Furthermore, long term autonomy requires the vessel to be self-conscious of its operating conditions and performance, aside from an infrastructure for remote monitoring and control.

This Special Issue is centered in robotic sailing and support technologies, and invites to submit research articles in the following topics:

• Naval architecture of autonomous vessels: new designs and advanced materials.

• Modelling, simulation, control and stability analysis.

• Sensors and actuators for autonomous sailboats.

• Embedded control and system architectures for autonomous sailing.

• Collision avoidance, boat-to-boat communication.

• Route planning, navigation and optimization.

• Machine learning and self-tuning control algorithms for autonomous sailboats.

• Long term autonomy in robotic sailing.

• Energy and power management.

• Field applications of autonomous sailing robots.

• Robotic boats in teaching and education.

• Legal issues for autonomous vessels.

Keywords: robotic sailing, long term autonomy, route planning and navigation, embedded systems, sensors and actuators, collision avoidance

You can find more information in Applied Science's web page at:

• https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special_issues/Robotic_Sailing_Support_Technologies
  

The deadline for this Special Issue is 30 November 2020.

We hope you can find this interesting for publishing your work in the area.

Best regards

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Antonio C. Domínguez-Brito (antonio.dominguez[at]ulpgc.es)

Colin Sauze (cos[at]aber.ac.uk)

José Carlos Alves (jca[at]fe.up.pt)