Originally Posted by Jake
Originally Posted by P.M.
...
So technically, a computer (touchscreen interface and software) CAN be initiating movements with the touch of a finger and NZ successfully pulled it off.



From my perspective (as a part-time industrial controls engineer and full-time robotic application engineer) by requiring a finger to touch a keypad to make something move is the human initiating the motion aka "manual operation". The human pushes a button, the board comes up, human pushes another button, the board rakes to the side, button push and wing eases out, etc. If, however, Ashby just taps a button that fires off a series of mechanical motions on the boat to, perhaps, move all the foils through an entire tacking series, or the boat can be put into a mode where it reads it's flight height and automatically adjusts the foils to maintain level flight, that is the computer initiating motion in an automatic mode. I suspect the later is not AC legal.

Again, though, I don't know the details of how this plays out in the rules - just pointing out what industrial applications of control systems consider human vs. machine controlled.



You are correct, and that is why it passed the rules. So the computer tells Ashby where to point his finger (just follow the dot) and then flight is automated.

Maybe Oracle can force an anomaly on the software in the pre-start or something. Remember when NZ blundered the jibe on the finishing leg and almost lost to SWE? I think that was the software. PacMan ran off the touchscreen and Ashby crapped his pants.


Philip
USA #1006