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Cliquez sur le drapeau français ci-dessus si vous préférez grenouilles et les escargots à Roast Beef :-)
To see use of the translation flags, and translated subtitles on Youtube videos, Play Video Here . Videos only play from English pages.
See Aleksey's
Sailing Saucer
for some original thinking from Russia.
Play
"The Early Years" video
to see those early prototype trials after 2008 :-)
You can click on
Snoopy's SPOT Map
or the picture on the left, to see where Snoopy is now.
By July 2024 Snoopy's Boat 11, was ready for a Bray Lake Test, and final checks, before Snoopy's next Attempt - in 2024.
See that picture on the right.
Hopefully the
The "Microtransat Challenge Website"
will get updated, with 2024 Entrants, and it will be confirmed their tracking still works, based on
Snoopy's SPOT Tracker above.
Details of the boat are practically unchanged since 2019 and earlier years: Boat name: Snoopy Sloop 11; Weight: LESS than 14.6 kg to only 13.1 kg
- probably the result of getting water out of the hull ! It also now has a red "waterline"; Length: 1.33m ; Beam: 0.29m; Draft: 0.48m; Hull type: Marblehead fibre glass hull, foam filled; Rig Design: A classical bermudan rig, based on the International One Metre (IOM) #3 storm rig; Power source@ Solar panels, 5v NiMH batteries;
Sensors: BR355-S2 GPS; Communications: SPOT Trace; Computers: Picaxe 28X2.
See
the latest Blog11
with details of repairs and tests on Snoopy's boat after it's 2022 Attempt, described below :-)
Work has progressed slowly, due to other priorities on Robin & Team-Joker guy's time, but we are getting there ! :-)
Preperation for the 2022 Attempt is in the old
Blog8.
e.g. plans for next boat; day by day progress on construction and tests.
Blog9 included preperation and Snoopy's 2022 Atlantic Attempt
,
with that video on the left. That's June in our
Camper, used to take Snoopy down to Boscombe for the 2022 launch.
You will see Team-Joker guys including Dick,
launching Snoopy, watched by others :-)
Snoopy went "Missing in Action" on 1st September near Weymouth, but, 6 weeks later, on Saturday 22nd October 2022,
sailed into Rottingdean Beach, east of Brighton ! See that video below, on the right :-)
Robin is now sure that Snoopy failed because he forgot to file a flat on the steel rod fixed to the rudder. Stupid boy Robin ! :-)
This is needed so that the grub screw, in the rudder lever, can prevent it working loose. The result, in rough seas,
would have been the rudder working loose, sliding out of the boat, allowing some sea water to come into the waterproof
box at the back.
The result of even a small amount of salt water, is electrical leakage and loss of battery power. Hence
the SPOT Trace Satcoms failing - and probably everything else !
Of course - it's still amazing how far Snoopy "sailed" eastward, despite the wind blowing westward or to the north ! What a great time and place to sail into !
Maybe you can help us thank whatever or whoever helped Snoopy travel so far east back to us ? ;-)
Robin's hunch is that it was Special Forces like the Royal Marines again. Maybe, after transport all that way east, releasing
Snoopy to be carried in by the inshore breeze, but maybe they hoped for Brighton, as back in 2015 ! :-)
Meanwhile, don't forget those early years of interesting prototype trials on the right :-)
Tap or Click on pictures to expand picture or play those videos :-)
Team Name: Team Joker
(Robin's Page)
(John's Page)
"Hi Guys ! I've lived so many years in Europe, I hope you don't think that I have "gone native".
These clothes were given me by McDonalds, when they gave out clones of me around the World,
and they are appropriate: Vikings were the first to reach American shores,
long before the French or British. I'm looking forward to coming back home to my mother-land of USA,
if and when that idiot Robin succeeds in making me a suitable boat. Sorry about his insistence
in our boats flying the British Flag: I'm sure he is only doing it to annoy you.
I often hear him muttering, 'we should never have worn red, and marched in a straight line'!
I hope to see you soon: I will give you plenty of warning !"
I'm Robin Lovelock, and the Press have described me as a "retired NATO scientist".
Snoopy's first attempt was in 2012, and broadcast live on BBC TV. Play that video on the right :-)
I set up this "Snoopy" page in early 2008, when I started this crazy hobby project: developing a small robot boat, capable of sailing itself
across the Atlantic, from UK to USA. My local friend John Sylvester got me started, telling me about the
friendly Microtransat international competition, and I was soon hooked. John gave us our name "Team-Joker".
It was Yves Briere in France,
who first suggested the idea in 2004, at a conference. Their early attempts fired my enthusiasm.
There is more about me, our family, my earlier defence systems career, then GPS software business - now a hobby,
on my
Home page.
This Team-Joker Guys video below was made in October 2018, and tells you a little
about the guys working with me on Snoopy's Trans-Atlantic Attempts. Important guys Dick & Peter made contact after that 2012 Publicity :-)
It is many decades since our academic years,
and, since retiring, we are now all too busy for paid work :-)
That video on the right shows Snoopy's Robot boat being given a "Bray Lake Test", before making an Atlantic Attempt.
Bray Lake is the "lake in Berkshire" mentioned on that 2012 BBC TV broadcast, and was already important to Robin
in an earlier project: GPS bottles to be thrown into the sea off Ramsgate, to sail "around the World" - or at least
as far as Holland ! :-)
Tap or Click on Snoopy sailing a bottle for this earlier hobby project:
tracking
GPS Bottles thrown into the sea. We learnt a lot about wind and tide
- very applicable to robot boats !
After browsing this page
and others, you can form your own opinion on myself and these rather challenging projects.
I give this page a "tidy-up" when I can, moving material onto other linked pages. Over the years I've found it valuable,
despite it's limitations, to save everybody's time, when chatting to me directly: I am a very slow email typer ! These pages should be
of help to all in contact with me, including journalists and friends helping, both near me in UK, and in far off countries.
Many of my friends now providing invaluable help, first made contact with me after seeing the BBC TV South broadcast,
or a Newspaper article. Thank you everybody ! :-)
That's a French boat on the right and at the very top of this page.
Below that is the 2014 American boat.
Click on these pictures for the French and USA teams - also with small boats.
From there you can go to other Microtransat pages, maintained by Aberystwyth University in UK.
Their web site has been the focus for this activity since 2005,
after Dr Mark Neal, at the University, and Yves, conceived the "Microtransat Challenge".
Their site includes the rules, teams "competing", and tracking of their robot boats.
Over the years, several teams have tried, but all
these heroic attempts only survived a few days or a few hundred miles.
A journalist pointed out to me, in 2012, that Snoopy had already sailed over 5,000 miles, during our reliability testing of him on Bray Lake
in 2012. Snoopy has done a lot more sailing since then,
and that's why I am confident Snoopy has as much chance as the other teams ! :-)
You will find links below to more detailed pages, amusing TV broadcasts, newspaper articles, and home videos, of Snoopy's attempts
on the Atlantic since November 2012.
Watch our attempts to "beat the surf" in March 2013: now we know how to do it - with Magic Seaweed !
Later in 2013, and in 2014, Snoopy made Atlantic attempts, but these ended up on the Isle of Wight,
with the same boat being rescued by Dick, with little damage.
The Attempt on 30th November 2014, was better: Snoopy got as far as Weymouth, but
crash landed near Portland Bill - undamaged.
The same boat tried again in March 2015,
and this was the best attempt yet - and the most interesting of all. Who did that "rescue at sea",
with Snoopy ending up at a Brighton Night Club ?
Snoopy's very first attempt was in 2012, and that was, until 2015,
the most mysterious story of all - we never did find where he went, after visiting that old military bunker
on the Isle of Wight :-)
Most of Team-Joker friends, and myself, can only spend a small ammount of our time on this Robot Boat hobby.
See my
Home
page and that "Bigger Picture".
Or just see very recent videos on my Youtube channel:
www.youtube.com/user/RobinLovelock/videos
We are still getting out and about, with Robin getting up to mischief :-)
Robin, June, and other Team-Joker members, had other things taking their time.
e.g. Coping with
Covid19
;
Health problems;
That
Flat Roof & Kitchen work is still on-going.
June likes her tennis; Robin likes minimum hassle and spending time with Grumpy Old Men :-)
Click on pictures to expand, play, or visit the relevant page.
Robin claims that some of his friends, and work-mates over the years, are crazier than he. We all have our "crosses to bear",
be it recent bereavement, physical health, addiction, or stigma resulting from mental health problems. Sometimes many things overlap,
such as helping friends, making new ones, or doing work in the
Garden
.
Robin prefers to just oversee work ;-)
See also
Walks
and
The Bigger Picture
.
But, perhaps most important of all ...
Robin's Hobbies
:-)
The Microtransat Challenge, of getting a small robot sailing boat to cross the Atlantic, unaided, was conceived as something to get students interested
in a range of subjects, including software, electronics, mechanical
engineering, and a very wide range of subjects. I've put this image here below,
to act as a summary of Snoopy's Robot Boat design, and a "shortcut" to the old
Design
page. It explains what "Kiss" means. You may also wish to see my
Q&A
page, on things like how any boat will be effected by wind and tide.
Before choosing a programming language, do a bit of research on things like Wiki,
and consider how difficult, or simple, it might be to calculate the distance and direction from
the boat's GPS position, to the next waypoint. There are a huge range of languages, and some are used
in Mission Critical embedded systems. In no particular order: Joviel, CORAL66, Ada, which link to others,
such as FORTRAN, PASCAL, BASIC.
Mission critical systems, such as controlling a rocket, flying an aircraft,
or handling battlefield communications, need "the right tools for the job" - and "the right systems approach".
When choosing components, good if it uses Industry-Standard interfaces. e.g. 5v power, RS232 serial data, etc.
Remember that suppliers "go bust", change product, or become too expensive, so you may wish to buy stock in quantity,
and "keep your options open" for changing something, when you need to ;-)
"PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH SNOOPY - it may disqualify him",
Snoopy's first Atlantic Attempt was in 2012 ...
Play the
BBC November 2012 video of Snoopy's launch on BBC TV South News
with Robin getting soaked.
Then
family video of Snoopy's 2012 launch
with BBC reporters too :-)
See Snoopy's
March 2015 Atlantic Attempt.
... launched from Boscombe on 18th March... SPOT tracker stopped on 27th... Landed at Brighton on 30th ! How DID Snoopy do that ? :-)
January 2023: Robin is reminding guys of the early GPS Simulation work, using his old GPS Software called GPSS. He is seeking help
in finding more recent hardware and software, able to run old and proven applications - not just GPSS ;-)
Tap or Click on these images to play videos or visit relevant pages, such as Robin's
DOWNLOADS
page.
Earlier "Latest News" is below, describing Snoopy's August 2023 Atlantic Attempt, then miraculous return into Rottendean :-)
It may take days, weeks, or months to know what happened - and LEARN
from Snoopy's Mission, to prepare for the 2023 Atlantic Attempt. e.g. repair this boat or build the next.
see
Blog9
for background, and more information and videos when available - from anyone ;-)
Here is the description of that Youtube video on the left - now with automatic subtitles and translation into your language:-)
In short: Snoopy surprised us by sailing south to Cherbourg, on the French Coast, chased by Dick with bicycle on a cross-channel ferry;
but then Snoopy changed his mind and turned back, followed by Dick. Peter and Dick collected Snoopy from Lulworth Cove and the boat
is now safely at Robin's home in Sunninghill.
Details of Snoopy's earlier aborted October 2018 Atlantic Attempt are now in section 5.11 below.
In short: a fault was seen in the SPOT Trace tracker,
and - despite perfect launch conditions - the attempt was cancelled.
It was hoped that the SPOT fault had been fixed, by updating the firmware,
but road testing
showed we still had a problem.
But, on 29th March 2019, the fault was eventually diagnosed as a poorly soldered power connection !
This was fixed, and the problem went.
Details are in
Blog7
.
The recent work, in test and repair of Snoopy's boat 11, following that eventful June 2019 Attempt,
is in
Blog8
.
Details of the boat are still
almost identical to that for
2018
.
Weight is now 14.6 kg. Computer is Picaxe 28X2.
Video can be that below from Monday 1st October 2018.
New Microtransat Finish Line target Lat/Lon: 38.4853,-66.3933
, subject to verification. Snoopy's later waypoints and final destination
are in the next section below:
3. Snoopy's route ... How long will it take ?
See "BlogX", describing background experimental work from 2008 until now.
See the
Recce,
Compass
,
Software
, and many
Blog
pages, for details of the vast ammount of experiments and testing, done over the years.
Yes, there is a lot there, and you need a wide screen to scroll through it.
I wish I'd written the blogs tidier, but they are better than nothing, and my time is precious.
Play the video to see how well
Snoopy's 2014 boat 10 did against the smaller experimental boat 6 on 11th July 2014.
The speech from the autopilot of Boat6 implies it was using experimental compass-based steering.
i.e. "ahead, ahead, left, ahead", etc. Boat 10 used our old, trusted, GPS-Only steering.
Why did Boat6 win ? Much less weight: see the Blog for Boats 11 and 12 having a race
with identical autopilots on Thursday 6th July 2017, three years later.
We can learn a lot from what we did in earlier years, if we write it down -
or better still, film it :-)
Every boat starts with weeks, or even months, of testing on Bray Lake.
Each year we wait for a suitable "Weather Window",
with FLAT surf, an offshore breeze from the North,
and a minimum of three for our launch team,
avoiding holidays, etc.
We watch
MagicSeaweed
for FLAT surf, an off-shore wind, and no rain.
We also watch
Winds Expected.
Live wind data for Calshot Spit is on
www.rock7.com/wind/.
Snoopy needs a day with suitable conditions
for launch, to sail south to about 15 miles off the coast, before heading west, along the English Channel,
and into the Atlantic.
Ideally, we want close to a week of following wind, from the East or North,
rather than from West or South.
These wind conditions occur when a LOW pressure area passes to the South, rather than the North of the UK.
While Snoopy's Boat waits for the "launch window", we can still experiment with the Boat(s) for next year,
or things like even smaller boats, better autopilots, or live monitoring of Snoopy's position relative to shipping.
Checkout the new
Boat 12
page, showing Eric's 1 metre long boat smashing the Bray Lake Test record.
If you have the stamina, you can see the
BlogX "Experimental Blog" page :-)
We now launch Snoopy from
west of Boscombe Pier.
You can click on
Snoopy's SPOT Map
or the picture on the right, to see where Snoopy is now.
The detail of Snoopy's preperation for each attempt,
including repairs, modifications, and testing, is in the current
Blog8.
e.g. plans for next boat; day by day progress on construction and tests.
For those interested, see
"Summary of design used in 2012, 2013 and 2014 boats ...", near the front of the
Design page.
The
Q&A page
discusses the effect of a strong tidal flow on robot sailing boats.
We have a
Tide Page, as an aid to understanding the best
launch time, on a particular day.
e.g. three hours ahead of
Portsmouth High Water.
A different launch spot, such as
near Sandbanks Beach Cafe
, might get around a problem with wind direction,
but what if the waves are big ?
To appreciate our problem, if we don't have those FLAT surf conditions, simply look at our
March 2013 Atlantic Attempts page, and play the
March 2013 video.
Volunteers are welcome, if you are not putting
anyone's lives at risk: we don't mind you getting wet :-)
Snoopy's SPOT Map
will show where Snoopy is now.
This might be at Bray Lake, at home in Sunninghill,
on the way down to the coast - or at sea, on his way to the USA.
Click on the map on the left, to see the detail.
Before making an Atlantic attempt, Snoopy has several weeks of "24/7 tests", to ensure all the boat is reliable.
Snoopy sailed over 5,000 miles on Bray Lake in 2012, and has sailed a lot further since then !
If the wind drops
to below about 1mph - as often happens at night -
Snoopy "goes for a wander". If he gets stuck
near the shore, Robin goes over to push Snoopy out again.
Play the 1 minute
Video of Snoopy's Cat' (catamaran). Next year's boat ?
That's Snoopy on the right, watching Telly, sat on his
Windmill Boat :-)
Want to cheer Snoopy on from Boscombe ? Be prepared to sing "Rule Britania!", and bring a Union Jack flag to wave :-)
This is all academic if Snoopy only survives a few minutes, hours, or even days, but here is my best guess on how long
it might take to travel the 5300 miles to the USA. Maybe he might sail at up to 2 mph - if he gets away from the UK shore.
The wind needs to be kind on that difficult stretch west, to the Microtransat Start Line. When the wind changes to it's
normal direction, from the south-west, it will be VERY slow ! I don't think he would get blown backwards, when
trying to sail directly into the wind, but progress would probably average less than 0.1 mph !
I'll keep this section updated, after we launch, and while we are able to track Snoopy,
to see how well he progresses, and at what speed, the latest wind predictions, etc.
Click on the picture to the right, to get the wind predictions from
Passageweather.com. We chose this route years ago, to make some use of
the southerly trade winds. But we must wait for a "weather window" to avoid a badly positioned LOW !
As mentioned earlier, Snoopy may only survive a few minutes or hours, but if he DOES reach that first "Channel" waypoint,
about 15 miles due south from Barton-on-Sea, this is where he plans to sail next. Click on the maps to see the detail.
After the last 2014 attempt, the waypoints have been modified, based on information on marine traffic,
to avoid intensive fishing areas.
Snoopy's autopilot software had little change since January 2013, and was programmed to head for a position on what was
the old Microtransat Start Line, at 7.5 degrees West. The new Start Line is further west.
The intermediate waypoints, south of Weymouth, Prawle, and The Lizard,
are intended to reduce the risk of Snoopy "bumping into the shore" due to inaccuracy of keeping his course.
If Snoopy succeeds in eventually crossing the Microtransat Start Line, he should then head south west, to his next waypoint east of
The Azores. From there, he should aim for the Microtransat Finish Line, at Longitude 60W.
In the unlikely event that Snoopy gets this far, Robin will publish more detail on the route ahead: there seems little risk of that ! :-)
June 2019: The Microtransat Finish Line has changed, so I've added more information on Snoopy's route here.
Most is taken from Picaxe Autopilot program source extracts, now in
rbroute1.txt
.
Some is from Snoopy's
Blog
pages and the GPS Simulator maps.
Thanks Peter for calculating that Snoopy's route probably interesects the new Microtransat Finish line at
lon -66.369 lat 39.03823. i.e. 39 2.29' N 66 22.14' W.
More detail is in
Blog7
, including other calculations of where Snoopy's route crosses the new Microtransat Finish Line.
If these are not correct, but Snoopy reaches Mayflower II, I'm sure nobody will argue if he's met the Microtransat Challenge :-)
As Peter rightly said, "It is all rather academic IMHO!" :-)
First published in January 2015 within Snoopy's
Blog4
... the end of Snoopy's mission from the "East of USA" waypoint, to alongside Mayflower II - allegedly ;-)
Play
"The Early Years" video
to see those early prototype trials from 2008.
See the introduction in the
Experimental Blog Page then detail of
...the early years, from 2008 to 2010
for how we started.
Then see near the end of
...from 2011 to 2012
. In brief: we started with small, prototypes, and a Pocket PC - Wind Vane based autopilot. We eventualy reached our design: Picaxe GPS-Only Autopilot, on a 4ft/1.2m long boat.
See
Snoopy's 2012 Attempt to cross The Atlantic
for the story from 2012, after he was launched on Tuesday 27th November.
See the page March 2013 Atlantic Attempts for the stories, pictures and videos of us fighting the surf ...
In brief: Snoopy tried, but failed to get away
from the beach, in waves that were bigger than on his 2012 attempt. He went home, to sail another day - in calmer conditions ! :-)
See the page October 2013 Atlantic Attempt for the full story.
In brief: Snoopy launched at 1215pm Friday 11th, wandered, landed about 3am Saturday, was rescued at 8am. Faulty rudder linkage ?
See the September 2014 Atlantic Attempt Page for the full story in pictures, and the
7 minute video.
In brief: Snoopy launched at 0850 Saturday 6th in little wind, wandered, landed Sunday morning and rescued. Not enough wind ?
Need a launch spot further west ?
See the Aborted November 2014 Atlantic Attempt Page for the full story in pictures,
and the 5 minute video.
In brief: Snoopy launched at 0830 Sunday 23rd from new spot near Bournemouth: he simply sailed parallel to the beach,
due to a software bug, now fixed.
See the Good November 2014 Atlantic Attempt Page for the full story in pictures.
In brief: Snoopy launched at 1045 Sunday 30th November from Boscombe Pier. Crash landed on rocks at Portland on Tuesday night.
Rescued by Dick almost undamaged.
Snoopy launched at 1100 Wednesday 18th March from Boscombe Pier. Landed in Brighton ! :-)
See March 2015 Atlantic Attempt for the full story in pictures and the video.
In brief:
After a few days, the solar power failed, and the boat drifted. Then the SPOT tracker stopped. Ended in Brighton after a "covert rescue" ? :-)
See
Snoopy's 2016 Atlantic Attempt for the full story.
In brief:
Snoopy was lost near Weymouth on 7th October, then probably carried by wind and tide, south west, towards France.
We watched
Winds Expected
and
Ventusky
for the wind which will decide where Snoopy hits land - but we still don't know where the heck he is :-)
See
Snoopy's 2017 Brief Atlantic Attempt for the full story.
In brief: It was ! Very brief ! In short: Snoopy survived one tumble in the surf, but not the second: his mast broke !
Was there a 2018 Atlantic Attempt ?
Sadly, no. Details are in
Blog7
for 29th October 2018.
In brief, June and Robin saw there was a fault in the SPOT Tracker,
on their way down to meet Dick and Peter at Boscombe. The attempt was aborted, but we enjoyed
our Halloween night there, including a recce of the beach under what would have been perfect launch conditions.
Team-Joker had other things on their plates, in the following months,
and the SPOT tracker fault was not diagnosed and fixed until April 2019.
See end of
BlogX
for details, but in brief: it was a poorly soldered electrical joint !
This now has it's own page:
Snoopy's June 2019 Atlantic Attempt
.
Click on pictures to enlarge or play video.
In brief, Snoopy's Boat 11 performed well, and those seven days were an amazing test of the total boat system, including hull, sails,
SPOT Tracker, and the Autopilot - maybe ! Conclusions have yet to be drawn.
For the first few days the wind was blowing at over 20 mph, gusting over 30 mph from the east.
Waves were above 2.5 metres. Despite all this, Snoopy was not blown downwind, and westward. e.g. onto Studland beach.
Work is in progress to identify what failed, other than the rudder being broken off and lost.
Maybe the rudder was lost on the first day: check out those unacounted for movements near that shipping lane,
The history of winds,
which changed when Snoopy got near France, and detailed track, compared with passing ships, may give us an explanation.
Robin has a wide network of friends, including Team-Joker, enthusiasts, journalists, retired military, etc, etc
- but mostly, Experienced Grumpy Old Men ! :-)
Our Summerhouse continues it's use as a Robot Boat Laboratory and Military Briefing Centre. If you visit, mind the "water" squirters ;-)
Inspection and repair of Boat 11, including it's new rudder, is recorded in
Blog7.
Click on pictures below to expand: 1) the state of Snoopy's solar panels and wiring, not changed in years ! but it coped
with that 2019 trip to France and back, without a rudder ! 2) after majority of work done, with details in
Blog8
.
"Phil's Boat", built and launched by Phil Smith from Cambridge in UK, is the one that impresses me the most,
in all the years I've been interested in the
Microtransat Challenge
- since 2008. Compare the weight and length of Phil's Boat: Snoopy's Boat 11 is 1.33m and 14.6kg. Phils is just 0.85m and 7 kg !
And most impressive of all, in 2020,
Phil's Boat
made that difficult journey from Chesil Beach, not far from James Lovelock's place,
westward, and out to that start point west of Ireland. Then something broke !
Other small boats Robin likes are those from
Epsom College
,
and Robin gave a little bit of help, with our
Wind and Total Tide "Drift" models, to predict where
Endevour
would land, and tip off someone who might have helped find it. It WAS found !
See
Robin's Q&A
page. e.g. how these robot sailing boats are moved by wind and tide :-)
Tidy up of this page in progress - Sorry ! :-)
See the "Design" Page for the design and construction of Snoopy's robot boats.
This includes details of the boats themselves, built from standard model boat parts, but with the hulls filled with foam
and strengthened sails. It also includes detail of the electronics, including autopilot, it's software, and the
tracking system. Details of testing, including GPS Plots of the "Bray Lake Test", and reports of 24/7 testing
and repairs, are in the "Blogs", reached from the current
Blog10.
See
Snoopy's First Attempt to cross The Atlantic in 2012, in
March 2013 in the surf ,
October 2013,
September 2014,
Aborted then
Good 2014 Attempt
and Last in March 2015.
Read
Jasper Coppings article in the Sunday Telegraph the Sunday before launch.
The backup, translatable version is
Here.
Earlier News:
Snoopy was to try again on Sunday 7th January 2018, just before High Tide. But see
First 2018 Seaside Trip Page
.
In brief: surf was much higher than predicted,
so Snoopy chickened out :-)
Meanwhile, we work with friends around the World on relevant technology. e.g.
alternative SatComs, Radio, and GSM communications; low cost GPS-Tracker-Camera products;
Dick checked out a PocketCam GPS-Tracker-Camera near Portsmouth.
See Woodstock's tests on Horseshoe lake, including new technology.
In 2017 Snoopy had 10 days of 24/7 test on Bray Lake.
Then we spent weeks diagnosing problems of EMC radio interference with his GPS units - easily fixed.
It was that FM Transmitter bug !
Then diagnosing "zig-zag sailing" that had plagued us for years: understeering - also easily fixed.
See "2.2 The Atlantic Attempt itself" below, for details such as where Snoopy will sail from.
See
Blog7
for later news, and details of preperation for the next Atlantic Attempt.
See
BlogX
for supporting experimental work, for use in this and later robot boats.
Click on pictures to enlarge or play.
You may like that 16th August video above, with Peter and the Australian MicroMite. Team-Joker now has Horseshoe Lake as an alternative to Bray Lake for tests.
Here are some videos of testing Team-Joker's "Woodstock" on Horseshoe lake, starting with the Woodstock Team Briefing ...
Woodstock on Bray Lake, starting with a radio control test. Woodstock Tacking Tests including with Snoopy. Meanwhile, Boat 11 relaxes at home ;-)
Fun and games with Team-Joker,
Woodstock
, and Snoopy on Bray Lake on 13th and 17th January, then Saturday 9th February 2019. Click on pictures to play video or enlarge.
Robin has added this section, which may be of interest to journalists, who want to "tag along" to get some photos or video.
It may also be of help to dog-walkers, who probably wonder why that strange man, seems to be talking to himself,
and listening to several radios on the roof of his car.
Snoopy has started making regular visits to Bray Lake again, to prepare him for his next attempt on the Atlantic,
expected before Christmas. Bray Lake is near Maidenhead, not far from the M4 motorway junction, and about 20 minutes drive
from Robn's home in Sunninghill. You can find out more by looking at the bottom of the
Press Release, or simply visit
www.braylake.com.
Robin normally avoids days when it is raining, or when there is no wind at all. He therefore checks web sites like
the Met Office, RainToday, and the Maidenhead Sailing Club web cam.
One of the boats are normally ready, and are quickly loaded into the back of Robin's rusty old Mercedes E240 estate car,
which was once silver, before discoloured by rust and mud. Important junk added to the car include wellies (the waders
are reserved for sea launches), a cheap transistor radio - to pick up speech from Snoopy's computer, a Pocket PC based
GPS to record a plot of Snoopy's path on the lake, and - maybe most important of all - Robin's camcorder - so he can
record everything, rather than rely on his flakey memory.
Most people park on the right, just before the club house, but Robin has the combination to the
barrier, so parks his car near the "Base", a few yards past the club house.
Snoopy is usually launched within 5 minutes of Robin arriving. First Robin switches on the Pocket PC,
since it takes a minute or two to "warm up" and start recording GPS data. He puts on his wellies, and
leans Snoopy against a post, with a tranny radio switched on to pick up the computer's speech. The computer
is switched on, and within a few minutes it is speaking and ready to launch.
Robin then uses his camcorder to shoot less than a minutes video, saying things like the date, any changes
to Snoopy's boat, and showing what the wind strength and direction was.
Snoopy is then dropped in the water, and soon after, Robin shoots video. A typical video might last an hour or more,
and occasionally a few small clips might be used in edited videos made public. However, the main purpose of Robin's
video, is to add yet another unedited video DVD to his collection at home. It provides a useful record of what happened.
Snoopy usually sails around the "Bray Lake Test" within an hour, and possibly as quickly as 20 minutes.
This usually depends on the wind direction: the fastest trips are usually with a gentle breeze of 5 to 10 mph
from the north-west, which means Snoopy does not need to tack towards a waypoint directly upwind.
If the wind is particularly "unkind", Snoopy's trip might take much longer than an hour: the slow bit is
always where he needs to sail upwind.
He will normally return accurately to his Base, where he started, but occasionally he might end up stuck
in reeds on the far bank, tangled in trees on the island, or snagged on the mooring for a floating jetty.
That's when Robin calls in the "Rescue Team" from the club house, and pops another £5 into their drinks kitty :-)
If Snoopy has been left over at Bray Lake for 24/7 reliability tests, he will have his SPOT tracker, which may not always
be with him, if it is being worked upon. Robin will occasionally go over to visually check Snoopy, or push him out again,
if he has drifted into the bank due to the wind having dropped overnight.
Drones:
Tap or Click on pictures below, to enlarge or play video. The picture is based on
braydron.jpg
Snoopy can do 24/7 testing between "24/7 North" and "24/7 South" at western end of lake.
The topic is discussed in depth on the
BlogX page, but, in July 2024, Robin
realised he needed to look at the Autopilot source code, near the end of his
Design page.
Perhaps we only get Snoopy back if it fails, and drifts into shore,
or something or someone goes out to rescue it " :-)
Snoopy's boat on 24/7 test before the 2014 Atlantic attempt.
That's Robin sat on the bank. Filmed by experimental boat 6 with a Mobius camera.
Another frame from the Mobius video camera, used for Bray Lake tests. Robin watches from near his car, at the "Base" position.
from Robin Lovelock in Sunninghill, Ascot, England: this section tells you when, and from roughly where, guys are visiting this "Snoopy" page.
Sometimes it may even give a clue to their organisation. e.g. a visit from
Aberwystwyth might be someone working in their University Microtransat Team.
Start with a visit to
Snoopy's Microtransat Contact List. You may even wish to join it.
I certainly welcome private emails from those interested in robot boats, even if you don't want to do it publicly.
As I say on other pages, it's very convenient for me, that there are so few visitors to this page:
See map and words near end of my
Home
page ;-)
The visit counters may give a rough indication on who else is visiting, or has visited, this page.
I don't hide or disguise my visits, but they may appear as "Ascot", or miles away, like "Farnborough, England" (on my Study PC),
or "Southend-on-Sea, England" ( on the Lounge PC).
Positions may not be accurate, but times are.
These may change at any time, without control by me.
So, you may see if I'm "working" in the Study, or "playing" in Lounge :-)
Not all visits are seen, and some browsers hide location, but you may find
Revolvermaps livestats for this "Snnopy" page
interesting.
The video on the right shows several guys visiting at the same time, after I posted the link to my
Covid19
page on the
Microtransat
forum :-)
The rest of you: please do not hesitate to contact me, with an email to my robin@gpss.co.uk (on my
Contact page).
Please tell me a little about yourself, such as what country, nearest town, and any interest in robot sailing boats or the Microtransat Challenge.
Be sure to say what time you visited this "Snoopy" page, and what brought you to it.
If you know the guys who rescued Snoopy in March 2015, I owe you some beers ! :-)
There have been
visits to this page counted by
Digits.net
since 20th August 2015.
© 1991-2020 Robin Lovelock. Please credit www.gpss.co.uk if you use material from any of these pages. Thankyou.
See the
MicroMite Computer
- fantastic software from Australia, better than that for the Arduino.
Our Picaxe and MicroMite Autopilots can go into other robot boats.
See
American Toy Boat lands in Wales
.
See
Epsom College Trans-Atlantic robot boat
.
Snoopy's Team-Joker friend,
Woodstock
, is testing technology for future years !
While Snoopy waits for weather, we experiment with other robot boats:
See
Eric's Model Boat page
and
Woodstock
.
Click or Tap on that image of the rudder lever, above,
to see repairs in
Blog10 repairs
then
Blog11 showing preperation for the 2024 Atlantic Attempt
.
Specifications of Snoopy Sloop 11 in 2024
- based on
Microtransat Snoopy 2024
page ...
Location: Ascot, Berkshire, United Kingdom
Boat Names: Snoopy Sloop 11
Intended Route: East to West
Class: Sailing
Division: Autonomous
Weight: 13.1 kg
Length: 1.33 m
Beam: 0.29 m
Draft: 0.48 m
Hull type: Marblehead fibre glass hull, foam filled.
Rig Design: A classical bermudan rig based on the International One Metre (IOM) #3 storm rig.
Power source: Solar panels, 5v NiMh batteries
Actuators: Acoms AS-17 radio control servos.
Sensors: BR355-S2 GPS
Communications: SPOT Trace
Computers: Picaxe 28X2
Contents of this page (click on a link to skip to that section) :
An important message to Americans, from Snoopy the Viking ...
1. Introduction by Robin ...
To young students, or older guys, wanting to try Systems Design, Electronics, Software, and ENGINEERING ....
Play the
June 2014 video of Snoopy's Robot Boat for 2014 and 2015 Microtransat Challenge for the big picture.
e.g. details of this year's boat and lessons learned.
2. Latest News on Snoopy's Attempts to cross the Atlantic ...
Snoopy's miraculous return into Rottingdean after 6 weeks at sea ...
Snoopy went "Missing in Action" on 1st September near Weymouth, but, 6 weeks later, on Saturday 22nd October 2022,
sailed into Rottingdean Beach, east of Brighton - without a rudder !
QUOTE:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9Lp4_6pWJo
is a 32 minute first rough cut video, recording events on Saturday 22nd October 2022. Snoopy's little Trans-Atlantic boat had gone "missing in action" two days after being launched by Team-Joker guys, on Tuesday 30th August, from the usual place, not far west of Boscombe Pier. Winds were such that our best guess, if everything had failed, is that Snoopy would wash up on a 45 mile stretch of beach between Weymouth and Torquay. Imagine everyon'e's surprise that, 8 weeks later, Snoopy should come sailing in onto Rottingdean beach, east of Brighton, at 1030 BST (0930 GMT) on Saturday 22nd October ! He had been watched, through a telescope, by Amanda and her family, relaxing near their beach hut. Amanda saw Robin's mobile number on the sails, and 'phoned Robin, working in his garden in Sunninghill. This was just as June arrived back from tennis, and so we soon agreed to drive our old car, the 1,5 hours down to Rottingdean. June & Robin had a lovely afternoon there, eating fish & chips by the beach hut, with Amanda's family, who then helped carrying Snoopy back to their car. June & Robin then enjoyed exploring the lovely historic Rottingdean, that they had never seen before. This video may help Robin's friends around the World, particularly in England, work out how on earth Snoopy managed to get back so far east. The smelly seaweed on the boat tells Robin that Snoopy spent much of those weeks, laying on a stretch of beach somewhere. It will not be the first time it happened, but if someone found Snoopy, then dropped him off-shore of Brighton, Robin owes them a favour ! :-) However, particular thanks must go to Amanda and her family: husband Richard and teenage children Phoebe and Patrick. Not just for return of Snoopy, but the lovely time and information about Rottingdean.
UNQUOTE.
Tap on that picture from Amanda on the right, to see others, and much more, on the
Blog9
page.
See
Snoopy's June 2019 Atlantic Attempt
for that trip to France and back - didn't Snoopy do well without a rudder ! ? :-)
2.1. Tests before an Atlantic Attempt - taken from end of
Blog6
...
2.2 The Atlantic Attempt itself ...
3. Snoopy's route ... How long will it take ?
Then head towards the USA east coast: maybe 1400 miles. + 6 weeks ? = 22 weeks / 6 months ?
( USA route waypoints are in Blogs )
4. Robin thanks his friends ...
5. History of Snoopy's attempt to cross the Atlantic ...
5.1 the early years of experiment, from 2008 until 2011 ....
5.2 November 2012 Atlantic Attempt ....
In brief: Snoopy sailed straight towards his destination, despite a strong sideways tide. Then he moved AGAINST the tide !
He then landed on the steps of an old military bunker !
5.3 March 2013 Atlantic Attempts ...
5.4 October 2013 Atlantic Attempt ...
5.5 September 2014 Atlantic Attempt ...
5.6 Aborted November 2014 Atlantic Attempt ...
5.7 Good November 2014 Atlantic Attempt ...
5.8 March 2015 Atlantic Attempt ...
5.9 October 2016 Atlantic Attempt ...
5.10 December 2017 Brief Atlantic Attempt ...
5.11 Aborted October 2018 Atlantic Attempt ...
5.12 June 2019 Atlantic Attempt - a trip to France and back ...
5.13 Covid19 stopped Snoopy's 2020 Attempt - but not Phil's Boat or Endevour :-) ...
5.14 Covid19
and many family things affected Team-Joker checking Snoopy's boat and launching in 2021 ...
5.15 Snoopy's August 2022 Attempt - 6 weeks later: sails into Rottingdean near Brighton ! :-) ...
Snoopy had a lovely launch on 30th August 2022, but went "Missing in Action" on 1st September. BUT Snoopy returned on Saturday 22nd October
2022 ! See
Blog9
for background, pictures, information and videos such as these below :-)
Tap or Click on pictures below to expand picture or play video ...
6. Design, Construction, and Testing of Snoopy's robot boats ...
7. Useful links ...
Play the
June 2014 video of Snoopy's Robot Boat for Microtransat
for the "big picture".
e.g. details of the 2014 (and 2015) boat, and lessons learned.
See
The Microtransat Challenge
maintained by Aberystwyth University in UK, for Microtransat competition details,
including rules and the other teams.
See our
Q&A (Questions & Answers) page. e.g. Do you understand the tide ?
See old GPS bottles in the sea
, drifting with wind and tide.
See
Robin's old "on water" page
- not updated for over 14 years - until recently, with detail of the 1998 round-the-World race and old pictures.
For Snoopy's next attempt,
see
magicseaweed.com
for when surf will be FLAT,
Winds expected
for an offshore wind,
and
Boscombe Webcam for a live picture.
See
www.marinetraffic.com
for other shipping near Snoopy.
See
UK Winds
,
Sailflow Winds
,
Met Office Rain & Wind,
World
Sea conditions
,
Temperatures
and
Sunshine.
See the Design page
for details of Snoopy's 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 boats, built for the Atlantic Attempts,
and
SPOT communications coverage map.
See the
Blog1,
Blog2,
Blog3,
Blog4,
Blog5,
and Current
Blog6
pages for progress in tests, repairs, etc, to prepare for each attempt.
See the BlogX page for experimental work, including
Compass
and techical stuff such as
Software
- and even
Snoopy's Paint !
See the
Picaxe Forum Thread
for the history, since August 2009, of Snoopy's Picaxe Autopilot Software - where Robin's got advice.
See Snoopy's Windmill boat
and play the
Windmill Boat video
- for what may appear in later years ? :-)
See Robin's Snoopy Sloop robot boat - progress in 2011 and 2012
for detail removed from this front page.
See
Robin's Snoopy Sloop robot boat - the early years, from 2008 to 2010
for how we started.
See
The Search for Snoopy in his 2012 Robot Boat for more information
such as the map showing coverage of searches done in 2012.
See
The 2012 Microtransat Map
for Snoopy and the French.
This
SPOT Track
is from the
Mail Online.
This Map
before deletion.
See Bournmouth live web-cam
for the weather and size of waves.
Play the
video of Snoopy's launch on BBC TV News
, Robin getting wet,
then our
family video of Snoopy's launch
with reporters too :-)
Play our
2012 Snoopy-Sloop history video.
The underwater TV recce/winch boat used in 2009 is in the 5 minute
"Rescue of Snoopy" video
Play the 3 minute
Robot Boat Sounds: past, present and future video September 2012 Text-To-Speech
and
video of Snoopy Sloop for 2013.
Play the 15 minute
Snoopy-Sloop 2013 video
with latest boat, the 2012 attempt, all boats since 2008
- or the 5 minute version
here :-)
Play the 7 minute utube
video of Snoopy's Atlantic Attempt on 23rd March
.
Play the 7 minute
utube video of Snoopy's Atlantic Attempt on 30th March
.
Play the 2 minute
video of Snoopy Sloop 9 in June 2013 on Bray Lake
Play the 10 minute
Video of Snoopy's October 2013 Atlantic Attempt.
Play the 14 minute
January 2014 Video of a Bray Lake test, with the new deck camera.
Play the
Video of Snoopy's Bray Lake Test on 13th September 2014.
7.1 What the Papers say ... Don't believe all you read in the papers :-)
Read BBC News report of "crash landing"
here
or
Nice pictures and amusing words in
The Mail Online here :-)
The news about Snoopy even got as far as New Zealand, in the Wellington,NZ
Dom-Post article :-)
First paper:
Snoopy prepared for self-navigating Atlantic voyage by Paul Miles in Maidenhead Advertiser on 5th September 2012.
Journalists may have started with our
Press Release and
video,
but editors need to edit : the meaning may not remain the same :-)
Robin says to
Tim Robinson of BBC Radio Solent
, "This is the guy who lost one of my GPS bottles last year !" :-)
Higher resolution pictures for the Press ...
Snoopy,
Mug,
Boat,
Robin,
BenTV,
Launch,
TimRobin,
Cat,
NewBoat
7.2 Earlier news and even more videos ...
8. a typical visit to Bray Lake ...
9. Snoopy's Bray Lake Test ... sail 530 metres automatically, through 5 waypoints ...
GPS plot of a Bray Lake Test in March 2014: solving the zig-zag sailing, giving a straighter and faster path ...
Snoopy's preparation in 2012 for the Atlantic crossing - the first taste of salt water ! ...
10. the Microtransat List and who visits this page ?
the French ENSTA-Bretagne boat, braving the Atlantic waves !