Automated

[radarboy32]

I read the "electric tow boat" forum a while back and then did a report on self-driving cars. Got me thinking-will we ever have a self-driving tow boat? Maybe on a track? Seems like it could help equalize the tournaments a little bit, since that's what a lot of focus is on. Is there such a thing already? Get on it MC and SN!

[lpskier]

I think they already have it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0qJGRL7te0

[aupatking]

With perfectly surveyed courses and gps combined, I see it sooner than later that someone applies it. They’ve got it in farm tractors and combines already. Slightly more money in farming than skiing, so I guess we’ll have to wait for a slalom addict to make one of those systems work for a ski boat. It takes the “team” (driver and skier) aspect/argument away from the old Olympic debate.

Due to the swing/pull I’d think some pre-counter steer would have to be programmed at turn balls, and that would vary based on rope length. It’s that or an extremely high speed processor running off instantaneous data seeing very small variations as trends but that still seems more reactive than proactive. The best driver I’ve ever met (you all know his name, I just can’t remember the words he used, so don’t want to misquote him) told me don’t be afraid to get ahead of your skier. A reactive system wouldn’t allow that and at -15 the boat would be somewhere around 47 feet downcourse before the skier rounded the ball but at -38 the boat is less than 32 feet down course.

[The_MS]

Probably have to choose between 25 settings if ZO gets involved