Robot kitesurfers
96 wordsAre you interested in power kites? Did you cobble together a Genetic Algorithm project for your degree? Did you also study Neural Networks (although the maths was a bit tricky)?
Are you my doppelganger?
Would you therefore be interested in a paper from the University of Sussex in which they breed neural networks to fly power kites in unpredictable winds while maximising the power delivery? What if this paper also mentions in passing the thrilling concept of ocean-going cargo ships towed by enormous robot-controlled kites?
Here’s the paper (PDF). Found on Google, prompted by an article in New Scientist.
September 6th, 2007 at 23:45
Hope you missed me.
Fascinating, neural networks flying kites in figure of eights to improve their energy conversion efficiency. Whatever next, never mind global warming, greenpeace will be complaining that the Globe is slowing down with all these wind powered everythings in operation. The concept of a 26 hour day springs to mind, what would you do with those extra two hours, fly kites I suppose, the mind boggles.
October 23rd, 2007 at 19:54
Not quite as mad as you might think, have a look here.
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.347
November 1st, 2007 at 12:16
Cool kitesurf video - http://www.fatface.com/page/videos