Olin College Blind Sailing Research Team
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I spent the summer before my senior year doing research with the olin college blind sailing research team. The goal of the project was to outfit a sailboat with sensors and equipment in order to allow blind sailors to sail independently of sighted guides.
The project was an attempt to allow blind sailors to race in the Paralympics: an opportunity denied to them due to their reliance on sighted sailors as guides during their races. It was also an effort to give blind sailors more independence. |
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Boat restoration process
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One of the first projects I undertook was to restore our vessel, inside and out. This began with the removal of all non-fiberglass parts of the boat interior in order to address a severe carpenter ant infestation.
Thus, the second project after removing the carpenter ants was to replace all of the structural wood components within the boat, and preparing the interior to be filled with our blind sailing equipment. |
blind sailing retrofitting process
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One of the biggest challenges we faced was developing a way of mounting all of our sensors and computational equipment atop the mast and allowing it to be serviced easily. This challenge is multifaceted in that it requires our mast to be retrofit to allow for interior wire routing, and the mast base to be rebuilt to allow for the mast to be quickly raised and lowered while on the water.
The first part of this process was to redesign the mast step. The new mast step had several requirements:
As such, I designed a new mast step casting with a more durable design and extra holes for wire routing. I then 3d printed my design in PLA and cast it in aluminum. I also rebuilt the mast step with a hinged design. Together, these modifications achieved our goals. |
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