École Nationale Supérieure de
Techniques Avancées

Abstract

As the need for a better understanding of the ocean issues is growing, this internship takes part into the Maribot Vane project, which aims at developing an autonomous sailboat, designed to carry out long-term research missions. The current prototype experiences a rolling instability which could, however, threatens its autonomy. This study intends to build a simple mathematical model both to explain this unstable phenomenon and to suggest practical geometrical considerations to limit its effects. To achieve this goal, the internship includes three phases. First, providing a mathematical analysis of the mechanical actions involved. Then, confronting it with experimental sets of data. Finally, suggesting geometrical guides to lessen this instability. If the experimental data have partially validated the model, its predictions have still to be confronted during real testing campaigns.