Design, Modeling, and Simulation of a Wing Sail Land Yacht

Autonomous land yachts can play a major role in the context of environmental monitoring, namely, in open, flat, windy regions, such as iced planes or sandy shorelines. This work addresses the design, modeling, and simulation of a land yacht probe equipped with a rigid free-rotating wing sail and tai...

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Main Authors: Vítor Tinoco, Benedita Malheiro, Manuel F. Silva
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/6/2760
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author Vítor Tinoco
Benedita Malheiro
Manuel F. Silva
author_facet Vítor Tinoco
Benedita Malheiro
Manuel F. Silva
author_sort Vítor Tinoco
collection DOAJ
description Autonomous land yachts can play a major role in the context of environmental monitoring, namely, in open, flat, windy regions, such as iced planes or sandy shorelines. This work addresses the design, modeling, and simulation of a land yacht probe equipped with a rigid free-rotating wing sail and tail flap. The wing was designed with a symmetrical airfoil and dimensions to provide the necessary thrust to displace the vehicle. Specifically, it proposes a novel design and simulation method for free rotating wing sail autonomous land yachts. The simulation relies on the Gazebo simulator together with the Robotic Operating System (ROS) middleware. It uses a modified Gazebo aerodynamics plugin to generate the lift and drag forces and the yawing moment, two newly created plugins, one to act as a wind sensor and the other to set the wing flap angular position, and the 3D model of the land yacht created with Fusion 360. The wing sail aligns automatically to the wind direction and can be set to any given angle of attack, stabilizing after a few seconds. Finally, the obtained polar diagram characterizes the expected sailing performance of the land yacht. The described method can be adopted to evaluate different wing sail configurations, as well as control techniques, for autonomous land yachts.
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spelling doaj.art-624e3cf321ca4d63b6f4a8b138b788ca2023-11-21T11:08:52ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172021-03-01116276010.3390/app11062760Design, Modeling, and Simulation of a Wing Sail Land YachtVítor Tinoco0Benedita Malheiro1Manuel F. Silva2ISEP/IPP—School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto, 4249-015 Porto, PortugalISEP/IPP—School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto, 4249-015 Porto, PortugalISEP/IPP—School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto, 4249-015 Porto, PortugalAutonomous land yachts can play a major role in the context of environmental monitoring, namely, in open, flat, windy regions, such as iced planes or sandy shorelines. This work addresses the design, modeling, and simulation of a land yacht probe equipped with a rigid free-rotating wing sail and tail flap. The wing was designed with a symmetrical airfoil and dimensions to provide the necessary thrust to displace the vehicle. Specifically, it proposes a novel design and simulation method for free rotating wing sail autonomous land yachts. The simulation relies on the Gazebo simulator together with the Robotic Operating System (ROS) middleware. It uses a modified Gazebo aerodynamics plugin to generate the lift and drag forces and the yawing moment, two newly created plugins, one to act as a wind sensor and the other to set the wing flap angular position, and the 3D model of the land yacht created with Fusion 360. The wing sail aligns automatically to the wind direction and can be set to any given angle of attack, stabilizing after a few seconds. Finally, the obtained polar diagram characterizes the expected sailing performance of the land yacht. The described method can be adopted to evaluate different wing sail configurations, as well as control techniques, for autonomous land yachts.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/6/2760robotic sailingdesignmodelingsimulationwing sailflap tail
spellingShingle Vítor Tinoco
Benedita Malheiro
Manuel F. Silva
Design, Modeling, and Simulation of a Wing Sail Land Yacht
Applied Sciences
robotic sailing
design
modeling
simulation
wing sail
flap tail
title Design, Modeling, and Simulation of a Wing Sail Land Yacht
title_full Design, Modeling, and Simulation of a Wing Sail Land Yacht
title_fullStr Design, Modeling, and Simulation of a Wing Sail Land Yacht
title_full_unstemmed Design, Modeling, and Simulation of a Wing Sail Land Yacht
title_short Design, Modeling, and Simulation of a Wing Sail Land Yacht
title_sort design modeling and simulation of a wing sail land yacht
topic robotic sailing
design
modeling
simulation
wing sail
flap tail
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/6/2760
work_keys_str_mv AT vitortinoco designmodelingandsimulationofawingsaillandyacht
AT beneditamalheiro designmodelingandsimulationofawingsaillandyacht
AT manuelfsilva designmodelingandsimulationofawingsaillandyacht