A race for innovation

The America’s Cup is the world’s oldest and most prestigious sailing competition. It’s also a hotbed for innovation.

Here, two Capgemini colleagues with expert knowledge of competitive sailing reveal three ways that technology will power the action at this year’s competition in Barcelona.

Michael Martin is head of automation and robotics at Synapse, part of Capgemini Invent, and a former director of rules and umpiring at the America’s Cup.

Gerrit Bottemöller is senior director in manufacturing and high-tech industries at Capgemini Invent – and also a world-champion racing yachtsman who represented Germany in the America’s Cup in Valencia in 2007.

They consider the ever-changing design of boats, before looking at how innovation will bring better experiences – for sailing teams and audiences.

1. Boats will be even faster with next-generation engineering

“Racing boats have been flying since 2013,” says Gerrit. “Hydrofoils lift them out of the water to travel at speeds up to three times faster than they used to. Engineering innovation made the difference.”

“You can view every racing boat as an engineering problem,” says Michael. “All the America’s Cup teams are foiling now, and there’s a limit to how fast the current foils will let you race. To stay ahead, teams need to innovate again. We’re seeing foils being engineered that help boats maintain their lift and stop them dropping back down into the water and losing speed. Teams are also engineering the foil design and the shape of the boats’ hulls to get them rising out of the water onto their foils sooner and in lighter winds, which means they will be at a top speed more quickly.”

Gerrit adds: “There are so many parallels between innovation at the America’s Cup and our work at Capgemini. You’re always looking for the next step up in technology, and engineering that into a new product. It’s how we keep moving forward.”

2. Data will bring added excitement for audiences

“As a global partner to the America’s Cup,” says Gerrit, “Capgemini is changing the way the fans can follow the live action, and how broadcasters can commentate. WindSight IQ™, developed by Capgemini’s engineering, data, and design experts, will visualize the wind for the first time. Live data about the wind patterns across the racecourse is used to create a visual wind field so commentators and fans around the world can understand what’s happening on the water. It’s a completely new way of seeing what’s happening and who’s most likely to win.” 

“It will be a step-up in how data is used to add excitement for race audiences,” says Michael. “During any race, the wind undergoes continual changes in direction and speed. Traditionally, the only way you could detect that is by seeing it on the water, where a gust appears as a dark patch on the water. It’s really hard to see, so, with accurate live information, audiences will be able to see the best place to position the boats. They will have more information than the yacht crews.

“The new WindSight IQ™ means that audiences will also be able to ‘see the wind’ and understand the best routes teams could take and compare them against their actual performances. It is a real feat of engineering and design, as up until now, no one has been able to truly visualize how the wind is affecting a race in real time.”

“When we develop innovations like this at Capgemini, the aim is to accelerate and improve the use of a real physical product or service through our super-strong understanding of data and algorithms,” says Gerrit. “In this case, it’s the racing boat.”

3. ‘Digital twins’ show how teams can aim for perfection

“One of the technologies that is also set to make a difference for teams in this year’s America’s Cup is having a ‘digital twin’ of their real racing boat,” says Gerrit.

A ‘digital twin’ is a virtual representation of a real-world product or system, synchronized at a given frequency and level of detail. Basically, a virtual copy of a real-world thing.

“By ‘sailing’ the digital twin against your physical boat, you train the team on the water to race to the real boat’s full potential. For the engineers behind the scenes, data is brought from the real-world boat, so the digital twin learns and gets better.”  

“A virtual simulator like this helped power New Zealand to victory in the last America’s Cup,” says Michael. “Now Capgemini is also partnering with America’s Cup to bring this type of simulation technology to the competition for the benefit of audiences. Using light detection and ranging (LiDAR), scientific computation, and sensors to reveal the wind, WindSight IQ™ is then being used to feed a live ‘ghost boat’ yacht simulation that broadcasters can project onto the racecourse through augmented reality, to show the optimal path teams could take around the course.”

Sailing innovation will benefit many other sectors

“The kinds of tech being developed to race boats faster will benefit other industries too,” says Gerrit. “If you can engineer a boat to be more efficient, using no more energy but going three times faster, then similar tech could be used to develop other vehicles. Plus, being more efficient in the way we use power makes us more environmentally friendly. Sailing is a sport driven by wind – renewable energy – so what can we learn from it about how to use wind power elsewhere?”

“And as for the potential uses of WindSight IQ™, it paves the way for AI-enabled micro weather forecasting, which has applications in fields as diverse as airport safety and forest fire management,” he concludes.

“Sailing has a great culture of innovation, where everyone’s learning and everyone’s performance levels keep increasing,” says Michael. “This positive culture works well in any environment, so there’s a huge potential for crossover into other areas.”

“I think that’s why we, as Capgemini, stepped into this,” says Gerrit. “It’s not only to enhance the sailing tournament; it’s for the bigger purpose. The America’s Cup isn’t about warring teams of sailors – it’s about teams coming together in friendly competition of innovation and technology. That’s a very Capgemini thing.”