dynamic-content-widget-popup-57e33f9 - Monaco Energy Boat Challenge

UANTWERP SOLAR BOAT TEAM

University of Antwerp

TEAM

The UAntwerp Solar Boat Team is a group of bachelors and masters students from the Faculty of Applied Engineering at the University of Antwerp. Each year, the team designs and builds a solar-powered racing boat to compete in international competitions. This demanding environment pushes the team to innovate in efficient, sustainable energy use. In recent years, the team has focused strongly on autonomous sailing. By developing a fully electronic steer-by-wire system, AI-powered object detection, and intelligent pathfinding algorithms, supported by a new suite of sensors, they significantly enhanced the boat’s situational awareness and precision.

Project

The project’s main innovations focus on autonomy, perception, and performance. A complete overhaul of the navigation and perception architecture led to the development of a fully custom, ROS2-based navigation stack, designed specifically for high-precision autonomous sailing in dynamic and competitive environments. In parallel, the team introduced a 360° stereovision, AI-driven perception system that significantly enhances environmental awareness. By combining advanced computer vision with real-time sensor fusion, the boat can accurately detect obstacles, recognise course elements, and respond intelligently during autonomous manoeuvres. Redesigns to the boat’s structure and driveline improved peak performance, efficiency, and reliability, ensuring that the platform fully supports the increased demands of high-speed, autonomous operation.