Autonomous sailboat design: A review from the performance perspective

Autonomous sailboats are wind-powered platforms characterised by favourable endurance and low acoustic disturbance. Over the past two decades they have been widely employed in seafloor mapping, biological surveys, and persistent ocean–atmosphere observation. Existing reviews have largely catalogued platform configurations, while comparatively few studies have systematically linked design choices to the performance requirements of marine science applications.

This paper reviews present designs with respect to four critical performances—structural durability, energy self-sufficiency, overturning resistance, and sailing speed—and clarifies the underlying design logic and trade-offs. Illustrative measures include wing sails and redundant rudders for durability, self-trimming wings and solar harvesting for energy balance, and ballast keels for stability, together with the resulting tension between speed and stability. Statistical analysis further identifies key limitations, including insufficient weighting of mission scenarios, the inherent conflict between sailing speed and capsize resistance, and the absence of systematic design-optimisation frameworks. On this basis, the review outlines prospective directions such as scenario-customised design, adaptive mechanisms (including reefable and variant sails and stabilising devices), and simulation-based design optimisation, with the aim of providing stronger platform support for research in ecosystems, biogeochemistry, and meteorology.