UAV technology to help British sailing team by predicting weather

The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) has been a popular topic of discussion here at gCaptain and has been associated with a variety uses ranging from aerial surveillance to hurricane forecasting and even combating piracy.  This time the defence, security and aerospace company BAE Systems is using the software technology deveoloped for UAV’s to help the British sailing team, Skandia Team GBR, get a leg up on competition by accurately predicting local weather patterns.  Here is the announcement from BAE Systems:

The technological breakthrough is part of a five year, £1.5 million technology partnership between BAE Systems and UK Sport, the nation’s high performance sports agency, which is helping British athletes to prepare for sporting success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World and European Championships by giving them access to leading edge technologies and thinking.

For the first time the British Sailing team now have the means to make crucial assessments of local weather patterns, to help them plan their fastest and most competitive route during major sailing competitions at Weymouth Bay.

The special innovation, known as Project DRAKE, applies predictive mathematical modelling used currently in autonomous technologies to give touch-button access to data such as wind speed and wind direction.  Read Full Article.

The software was originally developed to create innovative command and control capabilities for a number of products including warships and Unmanned Air Vehicles and, according to the article, will allow coaches and yachtsmen to accurately forecast detailed weather patterns up to six to eight hours ahead of race time.

[Via BAE Systems]

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