ifm sensors tested while sailing: Do they work even under rough conditions?

During the 69F Cup, the last event of 2022 in Puerto Portals, Mallorca, ifm was sponsoring one of the sailing boats. The skipper of the boat “Captain Orange” was none other than our co-CEO Martin Buck. To test whether ifm sensors would still work under these very special and unusual conditions, the hardware was mounted to the foiling sailboat.

The peculiarity of these boats is that once they are fast enough, they completely lift out of the water which makes the measuring of the distance between the boat and the surface of the water crucial. To measure the distance, two different level sensors, one radar-based sensor and one ultrasonic sensor were mounted onto the boat. Furthermore, an inclination sensor was used that measures the roll angle which is very important for the crew.

All the data from the sensors is gathered and shown live on the display. A modem sends all the data in real-time into the cloud of the ifm mobile IoT suite. Thanks to the hardware, the sailors were able to rely less on their feelings and more on the data. ifm and the sailing sport have in common that teamwork, reliability, and constant technical development are always in focus in order to be successful.