After months of work, an engineering team from the University of Waterloo has built a self-driving sailboat.
Members of the autonomous sailing team launched the boat on its maiden voyage on Sunday afternoon at Conestogo Lake.
The second and third-year students are divided into teams of mechanical, software and electrical and each plays an important role in the development of the vessel.
Seamus Johnston, an avid sailor himself, wrote the algorithm that steers the boat.
He says the difficulty in coding a computer to sail is that much of the sport is human experience and gut instinct.
While the students say they still have some changes they want to make, they say the skills they’re learning will help their careers in the future.
The launch was a part of the Conestoga Sailing Club’s open house.
