The designers behind a "thinking" yacht are hoping to break a world record by sending it across the Atlantic Ocean without any human assistance.
The four-meter boat, "Avalon", was designed and built by an eight-strong team of third-year engineering students at Swiss science university ETH Zurich. The students are planning to take the boat to a robotic sailing regatta in July, before launching it into the Microtransat Transatlantic challenge in early September.
Using sensors to detect the speed and direction of the wind, the boat is programmed to reach a given co-ordinate and will attain it by automatically adapting to the changing conditions. 
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