Sail-IL: The First Israeli autonomous cruise sailing from Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University (TAU) students have long since been known for their exciting projects, which can range from environment and creating water purification systems to building race cars. This year, for the first time, TAU students are going to compete in the annual RoboBoat competition, which has been held yearly for twelve years in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The team of 15 students from Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer science plan, assemble, experiment and create an autonomous sailing boat all the while consulting with experts and learning the world of robotics. The schedule is packed, the deadlines are looming, and the students must maintain this along with a full load of studies.

The two original partners: Shoval Ben Shoshan and Nadav Sholav, who also won the University Hackathon together, used their military service to help them prepare for this strenuous project. Nadav was initially interested due to his background as a Navy man. “The Faculty is always trying to promote multi-class projects which simulate cooperation and development from the world outside of our studies. The competition gives us an opportunity to create a final project while connecting engineers from several fields with a real-world challenge”.

 “Universities from around the world are participating in the RoboBoat competition and our vision is to be the first, not the last team to compete are already looking for students to join us in the project so they can lead it next year”, says Shoval.

We will accompany the SAIL-IL team and their autonomous boat until they reach the finish line in the competition. Feel free to follow them with us, here and on social networks - on Facebook and Instagram of Tel Aviv University, in the hashtag #TAU_SAIL