Autonomous sailboats during last year's competition.

Students, researchers and hobbyists from around the world will gather in Kingston June 7-10 for the World Robotic Sailing Championships and SailBot. Participants will design, build and program self-navigating sailboats for testing at the events. Queen’s University students will host the two international engineering design competitions at the Kingston Yacht Club.

The World Robotic Sailing Championships are being held in North America for the first time, and this is the first year both of these events will be held concurrently. Nine teams from Canada, the United States, Germany, Austria and Wales have already registered to face-off against each other to prove that they are the best in the world.

Boats are programmed for GPS, wind speed, and a number of other factors. Competitions include station keeping, navigation, collision avoidance, a long-distance race and match racing.

The World Robotic Sailing Championship first began back in 2007, and organizers say it will continue to grow in the years to come as people recognize the potential economic and environmental benefits of autonomous sailboats, including reducing GHG emissions.

“What really separates us from other engineering competitions is that we’re focusing on marine vehicles and the applications of that technology,” says Marc Burnie, event chair of Queen’s Mostly Autonomous Sailboat Team (MAST). “You can have a good idea, but if it doesn’t work in practice it’s pretty useless.”

The SailBot competition started as a design project for fourth year students at the University of British Columbia. This year, teams from Queen’s, Royal Military College, the US Naval Academy, the US Coast Guard Academy, and other schools will compete. The first SailBot event was hosted by Queen’s in 2006.