Emulation of electronic instrumentation devices supporting sailboat's autonomous navigation

In this paper it is shown a system for the emulation of electronic instrumentation devices used in a sailboat (a scale model) capable of sailing autonomously. The emulated devices are a wind vane sensor, a compass sensor and a GPS receiver, that allow the laboratory recreation of sailing conditions through the communication protocols involved. The emulation system, implemented with an Arduino board, is also capable of acquiring sensor data when in a real world scenario for a later indoor reproduction (emulation), being also interconnected with a computer program that allows the analysis of the taken path as well defining new sailing routes to perform. The emulation system also provides support to validate inside the lab different control strategies for specific navigation situations (as far as only the wind vane can be manually adjusted, as GPS receiver does not properly work inside the laboratory, as well as the electronic compass cannot be fully cheated).