Apply the Internet of Things to 470
Yamaha Motor and Fujitsu have announced a partnership to conduct tests on the 470 dinghies. The two Japanese companies will conduct an Olympic sailing yacht campaign from March 13 to April 30, 2019 on Lake Hamana in Japan. The project entitled Project 470 Sailing Analysis consists of collecting data to optimize the boat's settings and understanding.
Data collection and boat optimization
In order to analyse the parameters affecting the boat's performance, Yamaha Motor and Fujitsu will equip the 470 with a series of measuring equipment:
- a nine-axis sensor, including an accelerometer, gyroscope and geomagnetic sensor to determine the boat's attitude and a GPS to measure its speed, heading and position. This data will be sent to the cloud for immediate viewing.
- a rudder force sensor to determine the applied force.
- an accompanying boat will collect information on wind and sea conditions.
Fujitsu will then develop an application to visualize and analyze the data. Yamaha's design teams will work on the results to develop the boats and optimize them through repeated tests by varying the parameters.
Yamaha aims at sailing beyond 470
Yamaha produces in Japan all types of leisure equipment, from motorcycles to piano and boats. If it is one of the 2 Japanese yards authorized to produce 470s, it also manufactures other sailboats. The results of the 470 Sailing Analysis Project will initially be used to optimize its Olympic dinghies as part of the gauge in advance of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, but also to increase its database for all its boat production.
