It's all in the controls: Big changes for Americas Cup! 

You're the best Mozzy. The technical side, controls, foils, etc. is the most interesting part of AC, and you get us into it.

Good idea, When I take a reef, I’d like the kettle to go on!

Cheers Mozzie! You are the man who keeps me informed about the Cup. I don't bother with any other channel. It takes a great sailor to really understand and explain to us what is going on behind the scenes with these super technical beasts. It won't be long before these AC75,s will sail themselves although I hope that never happens. I hope they don't allow it to go far. Don't want a computer telling them the exact trim spot and basically control the entire sail set up. I can understand these yachts require systems that weren't required before because of the nature of foiling. I am old school and think it should remain in the hands of the people on board.

As a control systems engineer who has done some sailing, this is the type of development that I would love to play around with. And don’t laugh about someone playing around with machine learning to analyze the data sets to find some type of control optimization (with all of the AI hype these days, it is probably unavoidable).

The technical permutations of the foiling AC yachts are endless 👌

F1 banned such 'co-ordinated' surface and suspension controls some time ago as they were so successful! However that was with good reason in motor sport. At this point in the technical evolution I think permitting such 'linked systems' is probably reasonable. It certainly opens up opportunities for competitive advantage. A very interesting and thought provoking vlog. In many ways your best yet!

ETNZ already have an AI sailor for the simulator. I imagine you could get the AI to optimise the parameters in the closed loop. Also nothing to stop you taking external data during the training process.

Mozzie it’s amazing how you with your limited resources can offer better insight than the highly paid sailing websites and streaming programs

Certainly enjoy your points of view,while I'm no sailor I total enjoy the process and racing. Keep producing these videos and throwing fabulous ideas and your point of view on the cup sailing etc.

Two minds. I feel that removing the scope for human error on the water puts too much competitive emphasis on back room lab tech. Same time, I’m looking forward to seeing how automation and expanded closed systems will develop our knowledge of sail and boat trim. Damn these yachts for being so interesting!

Thanks Mozzy - great work as ever. Totally love nerding out on this. For starters; I’ll go for spin halyard up = backstay, outhaul and cunning off. I can ditch a bunch of weight right there….although we will be drawing straws for dock side stay-cation at some point in the future….

Agreed with everyone here, fantastic video Mozzy. Great find in the rules and getting someone from etnz on as well. Best source for AC news you won’t see anywhere else.

As usual, fantastic analysis Mozzy. Keep it coming as it adds a whole new dimension to watching the on the water action. 👍👍

I like to go around the top mark and push one button to let everything out/off. 😂 Sounds good

The effort to allow the AC75s to sail and more importantly take off in much lighter wind is impressive. The linking of multiple controls to a single input has the potential to greatly reduce the hydraulic power use. This means less grinders and lighter weight. I’m guessing this was the primary benefit. Fewer days of no sailing.

On a related tack, there has been talk of adding sail power to commercial shipping as a way of reducing their CO2 emissions. The sort of automation (and AI assistance) that's being explored in AC yachts and IMOCAs, among others, will presumably be an integral part of sail assisted shipping.

Great stuff Mozzy, so good to get some real insights into the AC instead of the bland soundbites and predictable, clichéd official newsfeeds. Thinking about applying the concept of linked controls to sailing in a wider context, it gets very complicated because just gearing controls together is an approximation which might be optimal in one set of conditions - where “conditions” is a multi-dimensional set of factors. No doubt the AC boats will have all these gearings (for want of a better way of putting it) mapped across the entire range of conditions they expect to sail in, aided massively by extensive simulation. They have a very limited range of conditions to map taking into account their very fixed course & race format. For the rest of us there will still (thankfully) still be a place for seat-of-the-pants fine trim of all the different controls even if they can coarsely (think one-string Merlin) be interlinked.

Great. Now I have to go sailing, so I can try to understand this video.

Great video, once again! Thanks!

Very interesting stuff. Thanks. If my jib and main were linked I’d still want a control to allow the minor adjustment of the jib in relationship to the main. Best of both worlds, convenience & flexibility.

Question: Would this cross-control design have saved American Magic in the last Cup? It couldn’t have anticipated the gust which flew them out of the water that day obviously, but can these new control rules provide for fail safe responses which will be fast enough to keep a yacht under control in extreme conditions?

I believe I like both how you can trim on a "higher abstraction level" - like adjust the ratios of jib to main instead of the individual sail, and how it becomes a technical development area to implement and tune this well. Some of the "mechanics" and required routine of trimming well when racing will be lost though? Also, I think part of it is just to allow smooth control of actuators such that you limit peak loads on the control system to conserve energy AND make the control surface change less abrupt.

Combining mechanical controls could enable something like an analog computer to improve overall stability.

Another good analysis, Tom. Great to see AC yachting progress - although there will be many screaming heresy for sure. ;-)

Great video and spotting . 3 d sheeting seems very hydraulically power consumptive compared to arc track and variable jib tack height .Most interesting the possibilities of linked controls but it is getting close to PlayStation sailing . Keep up the good work

Great talk with Ryan and big discovery, as always a great video.

I would definitely link the hydraulic ram on the mainsail clew with the double skin mainsail battens along the mast so it’s possible to twist the leech in and out. Sailing the moth I would love to have another way of powering in and depowering out to maintain my heel in gusts, etc. other than sheeting in and out my mainsheet. Such a linked system gives the opportunity to do so. Also I would Link ride height with mainfoil angle. Because the higher you fly, the more leveled foils and so less drag you wanna have.

It’s very hard to know quite how far this could go. From the video I can see that we could have buttons for effectively sheet in and sheet out. These would then effectively change everything thing needed for the change in apparent wind angle. So sheet in might flatten the main, bring the main closer to the centre line of the boat and do the same with the jib. But could it do more than that. Could the sailor have 2 inputs one for apparent wing angle and one apparent wind speed. Oh and maybe an upwind down wind mode switch. So the sailor sets the boat to up wind mode. They then have two controls, one where they set apparent speed and another apparent wind angle. Are boat speed and position allowed inputs? If it is the boat could effectively sail itself, with just a short delay while the human inputs wind data. Is the rudder an allowed control? Could the boat machine learn the best route upwind and even decide when to tack? I’m assuming there would be a tactics over ride switch

Looking forward to a robot only crew

Hi Mozzy, keep on making this great stuff. The best sailors sail there boat, on feel never on numbers because you are always late because the technical delay in data and the brain to crush the numbers and then sending the actions to your muscles. Then go to the AC36 new extra rules. It's a no brainer that getting the force numbers from the most important controls, combine those and let them crush by a computer the outcome is increasing efficient and much faster and stabler boat. Who need AWA, TWA, TWS, AWS etc. So it end by a steering guys or women and the tactician. BTW Red bull has less windtunnel time but could use the windtunnel to test there new inlet and by measering the forces on the kit they coudl see if the body was kore efficient ;-) yust hear say

Great insight thanks. I’ve been thinking about this stuff since first seeing the foiling boats in 2013 and my view was that automated control of ride height and boat heel/trim would be a great application - we now appear to be seeing that in the new one designs making them easier to sail. I hadn’t really paid much attention to the sail and rig controls, I think not only adjusting secondary controls are of benefit but also automatically adjusting the rig for each gust/lull/waveset would be possible - a Merlin one-string on steroids! Keep the videos coming please.

Brilliant for spotting this Mozzy! Will it now be possible to have a suite of linked controls and simply choose which one you want to engage? For example, you may want to link jib track and main track so they work in unison, or indeed define the proportional relationship between them. You could have the jib easing say 70% relative to the main. This ratio could be infinitely variable, depending on which version you selected. If all linked controls have the ability to have a variable response, then from a single command input, plus the selection of your preferred response, this just about makes the boat automated in my book. I can only hope that they have so many variables to choose from, that they might get confused.

While some talk about controlling costs, it seems advancing technology just defies control. I really enjoyed the discussion.

AC competition is about technology. If you want to test your sailing skills you sail one design. Different strokes for different folks

From my engineering point of view, this is great as long as boundaries are established, otherwise you can actually map out controls of the whole boat (up to Tesla FSD-like systems). Have you been able to extrapolate control system boundaries from AC rules?

One of the most fascinating videos you have done so far Mozzy! It got me wondering about the rules around whatever the AC equivalent of parc-ferme is with respect to these systems. Would the parameters of these closed-loop systems be adjustable on the fly - i.e. during a race? While the possibilities for performance enhancement are significant, I am also wondering about what happens if you get your 'setup' wrong for a set of conditions or sea-state, and then the trimmer ends up fighting the automation in conditions that don't match whatever they had predicted from their sim?

Long ago I raced Lasers. It would have been fab to have the plate drop whenever I hauled the sheet in at the downwind mark, and vice versa.

This is a fascinating subject. The number of things happening on the boat at any one time, what with the raking rudder, the cant angles, the flap trim, all of those will influence what the sail plan has to deliver across the hull to the water at a really low latency in order to maintain stable(?) and fast flight that reducing the mental workload with crosslinked systems can only be productive, and safer. Though, this level of electronic, and hydraulic integration does seem to add some weight to the moans of this being "not real sailing", or at least make it a little further from their safe space. Conceptually the idea of having a crew of people each skilled in their job applying their body to the task does seem to be diluted in a system like this. But the other question is: is any of that important? In terms of applicability to boats people sail, rather than romantic ideas of crewing on Endeavour or Shamrock, not that many seem to want a crew of a dozen just for sail control these days, singlehanded, and double handed seems to be where things are going regardless of boat size.

Imagine if American Magic had this last year, once the traveler load changes sides, the new leeward runner gets released… could have saved a boat 🤷🏼‍♂️

You mentioned the close loop only applies to control position and does not respond to measured input ie wind speed and angle ride height etc what if you could have the technology to analyze those data and recommend the ideal sail and boat configuration. It would in some ways be similar to how a pilot flies an instrument approach . The pilot applies yoke input and throttle input to remain on the ideal approach which is presented on a screen

❤ ETNZ ⛳

Interesting developments ahead. Still at the end of the day the technical arms race search for speed depends on the skill of the crew in sailing the boat along with the strategic and tactical decisions on the water.

I mean, what if you had wind speed and direction sensors that a human was looking at and then putting into the “flight computer”? It’s pretty fascinating to see a sport that sounds so “old” arrive at the point technically where they’re kind of making up rules just so it won’t be almost all computer controlled. It’d be interesting to see what would be possible if it were unlimited - no rules. Onboard batteries or generator, all automated foils and sails, etc. Could be a wild ride.

IMU tilt and accelerometer sensors for foil rake and flap control Just like kite boats and electric unicycles

Thanks for your analysis I always enjoy your presentation. This trend toward automaton is BAD for sailing every time you take the sailor out of the equation you strip away what it means to sail a boat and the knowledge a person needs to gain to be the best.

only one I can think of is the crew trapeze adjuster.

We know the burmuda cyclors were doing things no one knows about still. Etnz has the headscarf on this front too.

MATE Fantastic spot and topic to get the imagination running on this sailing tech of the future. I can see sail control linked jib and main. I can see boards and rudder linked. But can anyone get their head around above and below water line linkages? Great show Tom. Thanks

A key notion here, is that ML or AI can analyse correlations between performance and trim values and extract relationships to utilize that humans may not be able to find intuitively.

Having done millions of dollars worth of home automation control systems and had a Captain's license with lots of racing, I would want a control system User Experience (UX) of an outboard motor tiller. The windward/leeward movement would control the position of the main/jib. The throttle would control the twist for both sails. I am not sure if this conforms to the rules, but you asked what I would want without the caveat of being legal. The system would need a base line setting before racing to get the main/jib in synch and to calibrate the halyards, downhauls, vangs, cunninghams, travelers, and other control mechanisms. Putting this on the AC40 would further simplify the UX as a class racer for the masses (VERY wealthy masses). I also wonder about a pilot style helm that has fore/aft movement for the windward/leeward position of the the sails with a throttle grip to control twist. The concern I have about this type of UX is that the boat-to-boat interactions may require too much thinking from the helmsperson and overwhelm the human's ability to manage all the controls and dodge boats.

How do the SailGP boats approach this aspect of boat control? Anything that leads to close, entertaining racing on the water will probably be the ultimate arbiter for such policies I imagine.... Fascinating stuff Mozzie, thank you 👍

Working on the automation of mast rotation with outhaul right now!

I think from an athlete’s perspective I’d rather sail in classes without control linkages. In my mind it’s similar to competitive video games where the best longest lasting competitive video games like csgo starcraft tetris or ssbm are all super mechanically challenging with very high actions per minute needed or very precise actions needed. If the controls were more simple it would have a lower skill cap, would be less challenging less hard to master and less interesting to compete in for the top players. Basically all top level competitive video games have mechanics so hard a human can never optimize their inputs because too much is needed to be done at once with too much precision so you can always be striving more for perfection. I feel like with linked sail controls the optimal setup from a design pov is to link enough to reduce the required human input enough to nearly perfect boat handling and trim and make the racing outcome purely dependent on tactics and design, IE each crew member would has one input they are responsible for and they focus on for 100% of the race without ever having to multitask or divert their focus. Which just seems less interesting to do.

Mast rotation, main skin control (outhaul?) could all be automated with traveler position. Trav down de powers the whole sail. I expect there is already some level of automation in the from the last cup.

Love this channel as a real newbie to this type of competitive sailing. Agree with others the analysis is great. Not sure I understand it all but you were saying that it isn't allowed to take external conditions as inputs and automate responses from the boat. However could the information be fed to the "human" controller what the automated systems would be doing if allowed and then choose whether to follow that or do something different. In that way you could effectively have automated responses based on conditions.

Not a related comment to the post, but can anyone tell me why Alinghi Red Bull Racing where not out with the AC40 fleet during the race testing that has recently been conducted?

Tom great to hear you on the Bar Karate podcast.

I can see where this going! Robotic sailing here we come, 'sailors' will be passengers.

It's a little surprising to me they do not use the rules in a different way. Clearly FMH's need opening up mechantronically (or otherwise) in one specific way, which is to make it easier to take-off unassisted from displacement mode. Especially the match races where one boat touches down, they become near farcical. It can be tense in light air, but there's a good sporting tense and the other kind, the ridiculous. It's basically an immature sport otherwise, like archery but where the feathers fall off just after releasing the bow every tenth shot or so. Lots of tension.... but ... seriously, c'mon sailing nerds!

Why is no-one talking about this ? Because it is well outside the scope and experience of most people. And... this is a large part of the secret sauce of the Cup teams - so they certainly aren't talking.

Perfectly pitched explanation thanks Tom. Closed loop controls in yachting is nothing new as Ryan says. By example 30yrs back super yachts had “safety” controls which eased sheets automatically when the boat heeled to the point where the guest’s gin & tonics might spill. What’s new is the rule change to unite the control systems. Whilst I’m as fascinated and captivated by these Cups as most, I don’t welcome such rule creep. The obsession with speed (chasing F1 style entertainment) is shifting ever more tech onboard; replacing sailors that look at sails with tacticians that look at screens and button arrays, (cyclors are just for show let’s be honest and without them there’d just be a couple of guys at the back) and in so doing this limits ever further the opportunity for innovation incepted at Americas Cup level to trickle-down-benefit the mass market of regular yachties on regular 30 footers. The main beneficiary of AC this Century continues to be the superyacht sector and there’s a near total disconnect from that niche to mass market from both an economic and purism perspective. The amount of electrical and hydraulic power required to race these yachts is ever increasing and (controversial opinion) that’s moving in the wrong direction for yachting as a global community. The AC should (imho) be THE platform in today’s world that introduces and advances green energy solutions (e.g hydro-generation/ sail regeneration/“regen”) that CAN trickle down to the mass market to enable yachts to ditch their polluting diesel engines and optimise the wind, wave and other hydro energy sources in their environments. That space is crying out for research, advancement and innovation. AC could and should be leading the way, it’s an opportunity missed when it comes to rule changes. For generations sailing was about switching off the engine and the yacht being 100% propelled thru the water by the power of the wind. With these AC boats, essentially the engine is never off. What if? What if competing yachts could take no power onboard at all and had to start each race fully manual, but could create, apply and store (renewable) energy onboard, generated not by leg muscles but by the yacht’s own movement and interaction with wind wave and water during the race?

Excellent video.

Are they talking about ,adjusting Foil trim tabs,and sails automatically ,by computer decision : without human decision making ?

I suspect these rule changes will favour Team NZ, who were instrumental in getting the changes thru.

I love the detail of your presentations, but what instruments are allowed on the boat? are they allowed wind speed, direction etc, if so then a pilot could simply read the instrument and move a slider control to update the computer with the actual real-time wind speed, direction etc and the onboard control computer could make all trained adjustments based on their inputs.

In your opinion are the AC teams using / copying the navigation / control software mostly used by the (mostly french) IMOCA / Ultime boats? Unrelated question: why is the RS800 so heavily dominated by the english ?

Great breakdown as ever, thanks Mozzy, (are you getting any sleep yet 👶)? The ⛵ is a sanctuary ❤

Mozy was missing your video! Maybe about summer party? Mozy always great watch U video.

Think they kinda had to as the ac40 is doing this anyway so it flies in a semi automated way. In some ways surprised this wasn't opened a bit in the last cup as a soon as you move to hydraulic actuation instead of feeling the force or displacement through a rope or equivalent you are looking at a number on a screen so spend a huge amount of time creating a control system that makes it as easy as possible for a human to match a number when the simplest option would be just to get the computer to match them and the human to decide where they would like it to be. Ultimately it just allows you to get the most performance out of your design and the fastest sails/hull/foils match racers combination will still win.

Sailing is only an interest to me but I would suggest as this is the formula 1 of sailing they should incorporate as much technology as possible and then allow that to filter down

For cruising, short or single handed sailing I can see that automation could take a lot of work load off the sailor(s), as long as all the systems and sensors acutally work. For competitve sailing I would have none of this, as sailing, for me, is all about the crew working together. The piece of kit they are sailing is almost meaningless.

Soon the only limitation will be the physical structures, I can’t wait for the AC to go fully virtual so we can see what AI can truely achieve!

Well that's it then, Arduinos will be the competitive element in the Americas cup !!

Increased automation changes skill priority. As the technology improves sail boat and sail setup a greater weight is placed on having the boat in the right place on the race course.

Wot's Next, Radio Controlled AC 75 yachts?

Sounds like automation to me. AI to follow? Likely already there.

We all want to see a final race series decided after a 4-4 tie and then the best team winning from having the best sailing and design program. Yes being a Kiwi I hope Team NZ defends he cup. BUT I still want to see a really close competition with high tech boats, so allowing this tech will hopefully stop a back door approach hidden in secrecy like Larry Allison did back in Bermuda with the cheque book thrown at the Cup with last minute help from Airbus technology against the spirit of the rules. Having more aspects of the sailing controlled by smart systems won’t take away from the sailing team IMHO, rather it hopefully will mean small mistakes don’t cost the faster boat the Cup. Yes wishful thinking I know 😊 BTW great work as usual from Mozzy.

AI in training, on board systems & eventually racing may become dangerous when the boats are in close proximity. Will the next step be on board full surround radar and multi camera sensing feeding into the loop. There will always be the case of a situation not learned by the AI and the the need for the crew to understand the intricacies of the programming to avert a situation. Not unlike test pilots flying a prototype aircraft. Lots of cases of aircraft crashing where the pilots didn’t know what the aircraft was doing.

Hmmm. As with the other comment here. I am 2 minds as well. It seems to be removing the human aspect of making the boat go well, which takes away from the sailing skill. Ok, so maybe im not really of 2 minds. We are so close to just having 2 pilots and no sailors.

The last step will be full automation sub AI control terminator style😂

the question is can we scale these systems to a 200ft boat? What is the threshold?

How long before it’s just turned over to AI .

Can you augment the sailors with haptic feedback or let's go too far muscle control electrodes? At least then there's always a human in the loop

So expecting sailors to actually be in control of the yacht is now "old fashioned" What's next leaving them ashore and racing drones ? There has to be a point at which technology stops.

Fact is, a modern AC boat could no longer be sailed manually using simple blocks, winches etc. without exceptionally fast moving hydraulics, actuators and servo’s. To keep the hard work element alive, humans are used to generate the hydraulic power, something that really is unnecessary and is only there to pay lip service to human power generation that requires exceptional athleticism to turn it into a true sport. Maybe it’s time to remove the human muscle element and go fully automated with humans simply controlling an endless supply of hydraulic power to move every moveable element in any direction?

All automated systems off. Sail the way we all learned. Make it the best sailors and designer wins. The cup has always been a design type contest, but sailed by human beings!

Keora m8t questions Wie don't tem new Zealand ìnvent a retractable ruder shaped like bat wings wat do you say!

you don't need to be good sailor. you just need to be good at videogames. what a waste of usage of Olympians and world champions

Hi. Can you share how fast these new AC40's and LEQ12's are actually going?

👍

Soon we won't need any crew!

Let AI take complete control over all settings in the practice boats. Then the clever bit will be the human learning why the AI did what it did

Not a fan of automation slippery slope. Is this a race for sailors or coders.

Here’s an idea build boats and sail them to rules that can be controlled by the crew . The more tech the worse the racing .

It's all in the integrated collision avoidance system ❤ Undefined X Unrevealed: ~ )_@m ~ A two flue problem 😀 🌎

In before the luddites take over the comment section. 😂

Stop saying yacht!