Our high-performance inertial sensor is at the core of this innovation
AGH Solar Boat is a student-led engineering team from AGH University of Kraków, Poland. Since 2015, the team has designed and built zero-emission racing boats to promote sustainable maritime innovation.
Their boats, including Baśka and Celka, have claimed several podium finishes at the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge. The event is widely recognized as one of the top clean-energy marine competitions in the world.
In 2025, their solar-powered boat Celka took second place in the AI Class. This category is the competition’s toughest autonomous challenge. The boat relied on the SBG Systems Ellipse-D for precise real-time navigation.
AGH solar boat’s mission in Monaco Energy Boat challenge
The AI Class at the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge requires competing boats to complete three autonomous tasks — AI Taxi, AI Slalom, and AI Docking — without any human intervention. For a solar-powered boat to perform reliably in this environment, the navigation architecture must deliver accurate, low-latency data on position, velocity, acceleration, and heading at all times.
The team then developed its own autonomous system based on ROS2 and a custom neural network-based vision system. The system continuously analyzed the surrounding environment, planned an optimal route, and executed maneuvers through a real-time controller.
For this control loop to function correctly, they needed a navigation sensor capable of providing stable orientation and positioning data with minimal transmission delay, even in a dynamic marine environment.
Integrating Ellipse-D: From lab to Monaco
AGH Solar Boat first discovered us while researching navigation solutions for Celka. After reviewing the product specifications on our website, the team identified the Ellipse-D as the ideal fit for their technical requirements and contacted us to explore a sponsorship collaboration.
The partnership proved successful, and the team integrated Ellipse-D into the vessel’s onboard architecture. They connected Ellipse-D to the onboard computer via USB, processed the data in ROS2, and routed it to the CAN bus for the autonomous control system. They also mounted two GNSS antennas at the front and rear of the solar-powered boat to enable dual-antenna heading computation.
This integration allowed the autonomous navigation system to run with the real-time precision required to guide the vessel through the Monaco competition tasks.
“The product is an integral part of our system, and without it, competing in challenges such as the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge 2025 would be impossible,” explains Filip Nawalaniec, Software Team Member.
Straightforward integration, fast team adoption
The team self-managed the integration process, using our online support portal to find detailed documentation on sensor accuracy, auxiliary sensor configuration, and correct usage procedures. All necessary technical information was readily available through the portal.
“We didn’t require any help using the product, as all necessary information was readily available through the support portal,” concludes Przemysław Domagała, Software Team Leader.
Designed for high performance and strong results
The Ellipse-D delivered the navigation backbone required for Celka to compete autonomously at an international level. According to the team, the key benefits were:
- Reliability and accuracy in position and orientation data across all autonomous tasks.
- Easy integration with ROS2, which enabled rapid deployment of the real-time control system.
- Low data transmission latency, essential for responsive maneuvering during competition.
- Improved stability and predictability of the autonomous system’s overall performance.
This performance earned AGH Solar Boat 2nd place in the AI Class at the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge 2025 and confirmed that Ellipse-D suits demanding autonomous applications aboard a solar-powered boat.
“The main benefit of using the Ellipse-D is its reliability and accuracy in providing position and orientation data, which is crucial for autonomous navigation tasks. Thanks to its easy integration with our ROS2-based system and low data transmission latency, we were able to implement real-time control effectively,” says Michał Zawada, Embedded Team Leader.
Next steps in autonomous marine navigation
AGH Solar Boat continues to develop advanced electric and autonomous vessels to demonstrate that a solar-powered boat can be both competitive and ecologically responsible.
The team’s work at Monaco proves that student engineers can achieve podium results in the world’s most demanding clean-energy marine competitions using professional-grade navigation technology.
Their project shows that sustainable propulsion and autonomous intelligence can coexist, and that university labs are already shaping the future of water transport.
Ellipse-D
The Ellipse-D is a compact inertial navigation system integrating dual-antenna, dual-frequency RTK GNSS with a high-performance IMU. It delivers accurate position, velocity, heading, and motion data at high frequency, making it ideal for robotic and autonomous marine applications.
Key features include:
• Dual-antenna GNSS for heading computation without external magnetometers.
• ROS2-compatible output for seamless integration with robotics software stacks.
• Compact, robust form factor suited to space-constrained platforms.
• Compatible with Qinertia post-processing software for advanced trajectory analysis
