Initial commit

.gitignore

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+_build/

Makefile

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+# Minimal makefile for Sphinx documentation
+#
+
+# You can set these variables from the command line.
+SPHINXOPTS    =
+SPHINXBUILD   = python3 -msphinx
+SPHINXPROJ    = RoboticSailingguide
+SOURCEDIR     = .
+BUILDDIR      = _build
+
+# Put it first so that "make" without argument is like "make help".
+help:
+	@$(SPHINXBUILD) -M help "$(SOURCEDIR)" "$(BUILDDIR)" $(SPHINXOPTS) $(O)
+
+.PHONY: help Makefile
+
+# Catch-all target: route all unknown targets to Sphinx using the new
+# "make mode" option.  $(O) is meant as a shortcut for $(SPHINXOPTS).
+%: Makefile
+	@$(SPHINXBUILD) -M $@ "$(SOURCEDIR)" "$(BUILDDIR)" $(SPHINXOPTS) $(O)

boat.rst

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+The boat
+========
+
+A standard sailing boat has four main parts:
+
+- **Hull**: Base platform, floats in the water.
+  Probably also holds most of your electronics.
+- **Sails**: Transfers energy from the wind to the boat.
+  Sails are most effective when acting as an airfoil,
+  not just a bag catching the wind.
+- **Keel**: Heavy weight underwater, stops the boat falling over.
+- **Rudder**: Sticks into the water, turns to steer the boat.
+
+If you don't want to build your own boat, a good shortcut is to look for remote
+controlled model sailing boats. Complete boats with servos for the sails and the
+rudder are available for a few hundred euros/dollars/pounds. The *RC laser*
+is one popular model, while the *International One Metre* class is a
+specification that many different models are made to.
+
+Other things to try
+-------------------
+
+- *Wing sails* are rigid airfoils rather than a flexible sheet.
+  They can be balanced so that changing and holding their position needs little
+  force.
+- An *air rudder* steers by deflecting air instead of water. Åland sailing
+  robots use this in combination with a free rotating wing sail. (Ref paper)
+- *Multi-hull* designs, like catamarans and trimarans, have two or more hulls
+  side-by-side, with a gap between them. This can help make the boat more
+  stable.

conf.py

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+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+#
+# Robotic Sailing guide documentation build configuration file, created by
+# sphinx-quickstart on Fri Aug 31 22:37:14 2018.
+#
+# This file is execfile()d with the current directory set to its
+# containing dir.
+#
+# Note that not all possible configuration values are present in this
+# autogenerated file.
+#
+# All configuration values have a default; values that are commented out
+# serve to show the default.
+
+# If extensions (or modules to document with autodoc) are in another directory,
+# add these directories to sys.path here. If the directory is relative to the
+# documentation root, use os.path.abspath to make it absolute, like shown here.
+#
+# import os
+# import sys
+# sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('.'))
+
+
+# -- General configuration ------------------------------------------------
+
+# If your documentation needs a minimal Sphinx version, state it here.
+#
+# needs_sphinx = '1.0'
+
+# Add any Sphinx extension module names here, as strings. They can be
+# extensions coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom
+# ones.
+extensions = []
+
+# Add any paths that contain templates here, relative to this directory.
+templates_path = ['_templates']
+
+# The suffix(es) of source filenames.
+# You can specify multiple suffix as a list of string:
+#
+# source_suffix = ['.rst', '.md']
+source_suffix = '.rst'
+
+# The master toctree document.
+master_doc = 'index'
+
+# General information about the project.
+project = 'Robotic Sailing guide'
+copyright = '2018, Thomas Kluyver'
+author = 'Thomas Kluyver'
+
+# The version info for the project you're documenting, acts as replacement for
+# |version| and |release|, also used in various other places throughout the
+# built documents.
+#
+# The short X.Y version.
+version = ''
+# The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
+release = ''
+
+# The language for content autogenerated by Sphinx. Refer to documentation
+# for a list of supported languages.
+#
+# This is also used if you do content translation via gettext catalogs.
+# Usually you set "language" from the command line for these cases.
+language = None
+
+# List of patterns, relative to source directory, that match files and
+# directories to ignore when looking for source files.
+# This patterns also effect to html_static_path and html_extra_path
+exclude_patterns = ['_build', 'Thumbs.db', '.DS_Store']
+
+# The name of the Pygments (syntax highlighting) style to use.
+pygments_style = 'sphinx'
+
+# If true, `todo` and `todoList` produce output, else they produce nothing.
+todo_include_todos = False
+
+
+# -- Options for HTML output ----------------------------------------------
+
+# The theme to use for HTML and HTML Help pages.  See the documentation for
+# a list of builtin themes.
+#
+html_theme = 'alabaster'
+
+# Theme options are theme-specific and customize the look and feel of a theme
+# further.  For a list of options available for each theme, see the
+# documentation.
+#
+# html_theme_options = {}
+
+# Add any paths that contain custom static files (such as style sheets) here,
+# relative to this directory. They are copied after the builtin static files,
+# so a file named "default.css" will overwrite the builtin "default.css".
+html_static_path = ['_static']
+
+
+# -- Options for HTMLHelp output ------------------------------------------
+
+# Output file base name for HTML help builder.
+htmlhelp_basename = 'RoboticSailingguidedoc'
+
+
+# -- Options for LaTeX output ---------------------------------------------
+
+latex_elements = {
+    # The paper size ('letterpaper' or 'a4paper').
+    #
+    # 'papersize': 'letterpaper',
+
+    # The font size ('10pt', '11pt' or '12pt').
+    #
+    # 'pointsize': '10pt',
+
+    # Additional stuff for the LaTeX preamble.
+    #
+    # 'preamble': '',
+
+    # Latex figure (float) alignment
+    #
+    # 'figure_align': 'htbp',
+}
+
+# Grouping the document tree into LaTeX files. List of tuples
+# (source start file, target name, title,
+#  author, documentclass [howto, manual, or own class]).
+latex_documents = [
+    (master_doc, 'RoboticSailingguide.tex', 'Robotic Sailing guide Documentation',
+     'Thomas Kluyver', 'manual'),
+]
+
+
+# -- Options for manual page output ---------------------------------------
+
+# One entry per manual page. List of tuples
+# (source start file, name, description, authors, manual section).
+man_pages = [
+    (master_doc, 'roboticsailingguide', 'Robotic Sailing guide Documentation',
+     [author], 1)
+]
+
+
+# -- Options for Texinfo output -------------------------------------------
+
+# Grouping the document tree into Texinfo files. List of tuples
+# (source start file, target name, title, author,
+#  dir menu entry, description, category)
+texinfo_documents = [
+    (master_doc, 'RoboticSailingguide', 'Robotic Sailing guide Documentation',
+     author, 'RoboticSailingguide', 'One line description of project.',
+     'Miscellaneous'),
+]
+
+
+

electronics.rst

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+Electronics
+===========
+
+You'll need a computer, at least two motors, and a handful of sensors.
+
+Computer
+--------
+
+Several teams have successfully used a Raspberry Pi as the brains of their
+boats. Microcontrollers such as Arduinos are another option: these make it
+easier to work with low-level hardware interfaces like PWM control for servos,
+but are less flexible for writing high-level control code.
+What sensors you choose may also affect the kind of computer you need.
+
+Motors
+------
+
+You'll need to move the sails and the rudder to control the boat.
+For the micro-sailboat class, a typical hobby-grade servomotor can move the
+rudder, but more force is needed for the sails: sail winch servos are available
+for remote-controlled sailing.
+
+If you have multiple sails or multiple rudders, you may want extra motors
+to control them independently.
+
+Positioning
+-----------
+
+GPS - and its cousins generically known as GNSS - are amazing.
+With an inexpensive receiver you can tap into a network of satellites
+and get an accurate position.
+
+Making sense of the data can take a bit of effort.
+You'll probably get a latitude and longitude in a coordinate system called
+WGS-84 - at this level of accuracy, getting the right reference system
+matters.
+For the small distances involved in WRSC, it's convenient to convert positions
+to coordinates in metres and assume a flat plane. This is what the UTM
+coordinate system does; you'll need to find which of the 60 UTM zones you're
+sailing in to get the calculations right.
+
+Wind sensors
+------------
+
+You need to measure the wind direction, and you may also want to know the speed.
+The simple approach is a physical wind vane and some way of measuring its
+position, such as a rotary encoder or a magnetic field sensor.
+Ultrasonic wind sensors measure the direction and speed of the wind with
+no moving parts, by comparing how sound waves move in different directions.
+
+Wind sensors are typically placed at the top of the mast or near the front of
+the boat, to minimise interference from the sails.
+
+Orientation sensors
+-------------------
+
+Sensing which way the boat is pointing is surprisingly tricky.
+The obvious approach is to measure the earth's magnetic field,
+like a handheld compass. But the earth's field is weak, and your electronics
+can interfere with it. If your boat can heel over in the wind, you also need
+to account for the third dimension.
+
+Combining gyroscopes and magnetic field readings can give more accurate
+estimates of direction. Inexpensive 'IMUs' combining gyroscopes, magnetic field
+sensors and accelerometers are readily available. But combining multiple sources
+of data can also make it harder to understand when things go wrong.
+
+Other ideas, of varying practicality:
+
+- Use only a gyroscope, along with knowledge of which way the boat was pointing
+  when it was started. Relies on having a gyroscope with low enough drift.
+- Infer the boat's orientation based on its movements tracked by GPS.
+- Have two GPS antennae, one at each end of the boat, and find the difference
+  between their positions.
+- Use the position of the sun, along with the local time.
+  It may be possible to use polarised light to estimate the sun's position
+  through clouds; there are suggestions that 'sunstones' were used to navigate
+  this way in mediaeval times.
+- Use computer vision to recognise landmarks, in combination with position
+  from GPS.

index.rst

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+Getting started with robotic sailing
+====================================
+
+This is an overview of the steps you need to think about to build a small
+autonomous sailing boat, such as you might need to compete in WRSC.
+We've tried to provide pointers both for how to get something basic to work,
+and other approaches you might consider. Depending on the time, knowledge and
+resources you have available, you can pick which areas to innovate in, and where
+to get something basic working.
+
+There are three main domains you'll need to think about:
+the boat, the electronics, and the control software.
+
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 2
+   :caption: Contents:
+
+   boat
+   electronics
+
+
+Indices and tables
+==================
+
+* :ref:`genindex`
+* :ref:`search`

make.bat

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+@ECHO OFF
+
+pushd %~dp0
+
+REM Command file for Sphinx documentation
+
+if "%SPHINXBUILD%" == "" (
+	set SPHINXBUILD=python -msphinx
+)
+set SOURCEDIR=.
+set BUILDDIR=_build
+set SPHINXPROJ=RoboticSailingguide
+
+if "%1" == "" goto help
+
+%SPHINXBUILD% >NUL 2>NUL
+if errorlevel 9009 (
+	echo.
+	echo.The Sphinx module was not found. Make sure you have Sphinx installed,
+	echo.then set the SPHINXBUILD environment variable to point to the full
+	echo.path of the 'sphinx-build' executable. Alternatively you may add the
+	echo.Sphinx directory to PATH.
+	echo.
+	echo.If you don't have Sphinx installed, grab it from
+	echo.http://sphinx-doc.org/
+	exit /b 1
+)
+
+%SPHINXBUILD% -M %1 %SOURCEDIR% %BUILDDIR% %SPHINXOPTS%
+goto end
+
+:help
+%SPHINXBUILD% -M help %SOURCEDIR% %BUILDDIR% %SPHINXOPTS%
+
+:end
+popd