Time: June 24 (Wednesday), 13:30
Venue: Maritime South Building, Room 1409
Speaker: An Yang

Speaker Biography:
Dr. An Yang is currently an engineer at the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Shenyang Institute of Automation, CAS) in 2023, and conducted postdoctoral research at Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School from 2023 to 2025. He has long been engaged in research on the design and optimization of unmanned sailboat systems. His main research interests include overall design and performance evaluation of unmanned sailboats, aerodynamic–hydrodynamic coupling mechanisms, simulation-driven multidisciplinary optimization, autonomous mission planning, and strategy transfer based on human sailing experience. He has published multiple academic papers in high-level ocean engineering journals such as Ocean Engineering, Journal of Ocean Engineering and Science, and Applied Ocean Research. He serves as an editorial board member for the Journal of Sailing Technology and as a reviewer for journals including Ocean Engineering and Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization. He has led the frontier technology exploration project "Novel Hydrofoil Unmanned Sailboat" (funded at 1 million RMB) under the Science and Technology Committee of the Central Military Commission, as well as a general project under the Shenzhen Stable Support Program.

Abstract:
Unmanned sailboats are marine observation platforms that use wind energy as their primary power source for long-duration autonomous navigation, holding broad application prospects in marine environmental monitoring, resource exploration, and related fields. This report first reviews the development history of unmanned sailboats, tracing their technological evolution from the initial conceptualization to engineering applications. Subsequently, focusing on the core issue of sailing performance, the discussion is presented from two perspectives: hull design optimization and intelligent navigation control. At the design level, the report introduces performance evaluation methods based on Velocity Prediction Programs (VPP), Bayesian optimization of the overall configuration of wing-sail monohull unmanned sailboats, and simulation-driven multidisciplinary optimization design processes. At the control level, it explores coverage path planning methods for non-uniform time-varying marine environments, as well as data-driven navigation strategies derived from human operational experience in conventional sailing. Finally, the report concludes with an outlook on key technological challenges and future development directions for unmanned sailboats.