SEAWORTHY TECHNOLOGY
Eastie company helps boats, ships self-navigate
When the Costa Concordia hit some rocks off the Italian coast in January 2012, killing 32, Michael Johnson and his team went to work salvaging the cruise ship.
With roughly a dozen boats working side by side to move the ship that had run aground, Johnson knew there had to be a better way for ships to detect their surroundings.
“I saw just how at times it seemed like the most advanced technology we had was an Excel spreadsheet,” said Johnson, founder and chief executive of Sea Machines. “Seeing the ship on its side there, in the 21st century, without technology that prevents a ship from being manually driven up on the rocks like that.”
Sea Machines, founded by Johnson in 2015, is developing self-driving and advanced perception technology for boats big and small. The company, based in East Boston, has put its autonomous system in boats meant for oil spill cleanup, security and other repetitive marine tasks.
“You never know when it’s going to happen, so a lot of these assets stay on standby; they have to stay on readiness,” Johnson said. “Being able to have a machine that’s ready rather than having to keep a larger group of personnel makes it much more predictable.”
While smaller vessels are already driving on their own, Sea Machines’ technology can be helpful for other kinds of ships, Johnson said. Last week, Sea Machines and shipping giant Maersk announced a trial program that will see Maersk install Sea Machines technology on one of its massive containerships.
“For this containership situational awareness program, we aim to prove the technology increases our safety, efficiency, and reliability,” P. Michael A. Rodey, senior innovation manager at Maersk, said in a statement. “Autonomous vessels are not an end goal for Maersk nor is unmanned vessels; what is more of interest is the technology along the journey and the value it brings.” Sea Machines will install cameras and sensors to help the enormous ship understand its surroundings better. Cargo ships, sometimes 1,000 feet long, occasionally have to traverse fleets of small fishing boats. Right now, the ships have to go the long way around or try to weave between smaller craft that may be hard to see. With Sea Machines’ system, Johnson said, a large ship would be able to tell exactly where each boat is in the water.
“Any more information, smart information you can bring to them would be helpful,” Johnson said.
“We operate with 20th-century methods, highly manual, and we operate in a very dynamic, large domain.”