Mathematics of Sailing
Lehrstuhl Geometrie
One of our research focuses has been on the mathematical aspects of sailing. Our group is in particular interested in topics related to Discrete Mathematics, Convexity and Machine Learning. We are working for instance on theory and applications of polar performance diagrams and weather routing algorithms. We are also working on practical aspects of machine learning and created parts of a small "land sailing robot". In a joint Bachelor project with electrical engineers we have for instance explored possibilities to collect wind data using a DIY aneometer. Together with velocity data from GPS and an accelerometer one can collect the necessary data for a polar performance diagram. For NMEA-data collection we have configured and programmed with different ESP32s and RasPIs.
We have in particular created a data processing framework for polar performance diagrams and implemented a corresponding Python package hrosailing. It includes a detailed preprocessing framework for the generation of polar performance diagrams.
We also work on Sailing League Problems, that is, on optimized schedules (paring lists) for sailing competitions.