%0 Conference Proceedings %T Towing with sailboat robots %+ Lab-STICC_ENSTAB_CID_IHSEV ; OSM %+ Département STIC [Brest] (STIC) %A Jaulin, Luc %A Le Bars, Fabrice %< avec comité de lecture %B WRSC/IRSC 2014 %C Galway, Ireland %8 2014-09-07 %D 2014 %K sailboat robot %K controller %Z Engineering Sciences [physics]/AutomaticConference papers %X Moving huge objects floating at the surface of the ocean (such as containersor icebergs) with boats requires many human operators and a lot of energy.This is mainly due to the fact that when humans operate such equipment, time iscostly. Now, when we have time (as when robots operate, for instance), it is possibleto move arbitrarily large objects, for over long distances, with a limited quantity ofenergy. This is a consequence of the fact that in the water, the friction forces areproportional to the square of the speed (i.e., when we go slowly, we have almostno friction). This paper proposes the use of a sailboat robot to tow large objects. Itshows which control law could be used is order to (i) avoid loops inside the towingcable, (ii) avoid collisions between the robot and the towed object, and (iii) movethe object toward the desired direction. The control law is validated on a simulationwhere the object to be towed has to follow a trajectory corresponding to a largecircle. %G English %L hal-01122035 %U https://hal.science/hal-01122035 %~ ENSTA-BRETAGNE %~ ENSTA-BRETAGNE-STIC %~ LAB-STICC %~ TDS-MACS