Methodology for comparing autonomous sailboat control systems
Mobile robotics, Sailboats, Benchmarking, USV, ASV
In this work we propose a methodology for estimating the performance and comparing control systems for autonomous sailboats. One of the biggest problem in mobile robotics research is the absence of standard tools and methodology for distribution/verification of implementations and the performance of the employed techiniques. Our approach consists of an framework for performance evaluation divided in three components: scope, metrics and scenarios. The scope define the parts of the system that are comparable and also presents a compreesive approach to define the basis navigation system for autonomous robot. The scenario represent situations that happen during sailboat missions such as keep the sailboat close to a desired waypoint (virutal anchoring), docking and tracking. Quantitative metrics are extracted by experiments in the scenario and are used to evaluate characteristics expected from control systems such as stability, energy consumption, robustness and efficiency, resulting in an initial classification of the control system. An initial implementation of the system is made using the Ardupilot framework, where some control techinique and metrics were implemented for first analisys. The level of analysis can be gradually improved by adding more control techinique and metrics.