Robotic Boats Test the Water
Mitch Leslie · Engineering · 2022
An open-topped, metallic gray boat about the size of a compact car churns across a small harbor in central Amsterdam, the Netherlands.The craft detours around a pier jutting into the harbor and then slows as it approaches a customized dock.Turning sideways, it eases closer and closer until two hooks swing out from its side and latch onto the dock.Steering and docking are standard boating maneuvers, but the vessel performed them without a human pilot.It is one of two autonomous prototypes (Fig. 1) that have been undergoing testing in Amsterdam since mid-2021 as part of Roboat, a joint project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA, USA, and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions [1].Once trial runs are complete, the project's participants hope to deploy Roboats on Amsterdam's network of canals, where they could ferry passengers and cargo, collect trash, and interlock to form pop-up bridges for pedestrians and cyclists [2].''The goal is to have something that can operate by itself 24/7," said David Fernández-Gutiérrez, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT and the boat's co-designer.Boats and ships have long relied on autopilot for navigation, but artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies are allowing them to move nearer to full autonomy.Companies such as Sea Machines, based in Boston, MA, USA, now offer AI systems that integrate information from video cameras, radar, and other sources to help vessels steer a more efficient course and detect and avoid objects [3,4].However, these systems aid rather than replace the crew.Roboat and other similar projects take autonomy further, and some crewless watercraft are already plying the waves.Robotic vessels