Autonomous sailing for blind sailors using GPS

Blind sailors often rely on sighted guides to convey information while sailing. This information includes the location of other boats, buoys, or obstacles. However, certain types of races - such as match races - do not permit sighted guides on the vessel. Students and faculty from Olin College of Engineering are collaborating with visually-impaired sailors and sighted guides at Community Boating Incorporated, Boston MA, in order to design a solution to allow blind sailors to race without an onboard, sighted guide. This system incorporates a Raspberry Pi computer, a GPS unit, a tack sensor, an audio device, and a keypad for each boat, which wirelessly communicate to provide the sailors with information about their immediate surroundings and the position of various course landmarks.