AI boat still finding its sea legs
Just over 400 years after the Mayflower made its revolutionary voyage from England across the Atlantic Ocean towards the Americas, a futuristic sea vessel with the same name set sail, following a similar path. Only this time, there was no captain or crew on board. Instead, the boat would use radar to peer over the horizon, artificial intelligence to understand what was around it, and solar panels to power the journey.
But the so-called ‘‘AI Captain’’ wasn’t equipped to realise that the boat was under distress and needed to return to port for help. That order had to come from someone on shore.
‘‘It’s disappointing,’’ said Brett Phaneuf, co-founder of British ocean research non-profit Promare and co-director of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project.
IBM and Promare had dispatched the 15-metre autonomous boat into the waters off the coast of Plymouth, England, on Wednesday. The robotic boat was set to traverse the seas alone for the next few weeks until it reached Plymouth, Massachusetts, the town where pilgrim travellers settled in 1620.
But on Friday, the ship-shaped android developed a ‘‘minor
mechanical issue’’ that was significant enough for Promare to temporarily abort the mission.
The original Mayflower faced a few false starts, too, having to turn around twice for repairs before successfully completing its 66-day trans-Atlantic pilgrimage. The robotic version was 560
kilometres from its home base, with only 10 per cent of the journey completed, when it was instructed to turn around.
The broader purpose of the endeavour is to collect data related to climate change, plastic pollution and animal conservation for marine scientists. If it
is successful, the high-tech floating gadget should give researchers a way to study the world’s waterways without sending humans out to sea.
Cheshire-based Promare spent roughly US$1 million (NZ$1.44m) on materials at the project’s outset, while IBM led the tech and science-related parts. More than a dozen other organisations donated equipment and other services.
The project is the latest in a string of robotic ship endeavours that hope to one day enhance travel and shipping operations across large bodies of water.
While automakers and tech companies try to figure out how to operate autonomous cars on land safely, researchers and engineering companies are working toward the same thing on the sea.
In April, scientists from Kiel University in Germany unveiled design ideas for a self-piloted ferry meant to work with other forms of local transportation. Norwegian chemical company Yara has been fine-tuning its battery-powered, supposedly autonomous container ship since 2017. Rolls-Royce and Intel have also announced plans for an autonomous cargo ship.
The autonomous Mayflower constantly monitors incoming weather using forecast data from The Weather Company, which IBM owns. It uses six AI cameras and dozens of other sensors to spot and avoid potential hazards such as animals or other boats. The eventual voyage to the United States is estimated to take about three weeks, at a top speed just above eight knots (15kmh).