PEOPLE have been sailing the world for centuries, but ask a robot to do the same and it quickly falls down. Last year Mark Neal, a computer scientist at the University of Aberystwyth, UK, oversaw the launch of Pinta, a robotic sailing boat that set off from the west coast of Ireland in an attempt to be the first automaton to cross the Atlantic Ocean. His team lost communication with the boat just over two days later. The voyage was still an achievement: "Forty-nine hours is the longest period of unattended autonomous sailing that has happened," says Neal.
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