3. Sailboat modeling

The development of a dynamic model for sailboats serves several purposes: on the one hand, it can enable the implementation of a numerical model for the simulation and fine-tuning of control laws, for example, thus significantly accelerating the fine-tuning phase on a real autonomous sailboat. The use of such a simulation tool, even if imperfect, also makes it possible to test the behavior of the autonomous vehicle under controlled and reproducible conditions, which is obviously not possible with a real sailboat. What's more, such a dynamic model can also be used in the design and dimensioning phases. While not a substitute for the numerical tools used in structural design and dimensioning, based on the numerical resolution of the Navier-Stokes equations, this type of model does enable the various aerodynamic or hydrodynamic forces to be quantified globally, in order, for example, to dimension...