Sea Machines, the leading developer of autonomous command and control systems for the marine industry, has announced that it is sending an autonomous, remote-controlled tugboat across 1,000 nautical miles (1,850 km) around Denmark.
Known as the Machine Odyssey, the journey is a defining time for self-contained transportation and is set to prove that the world’s waterways are poised for long-term independence.
I am in under development a number of self-driving boats. But there are fewer autonomous commercial ships sailing the waterways.
The tugboat Nellie Bly has full control on board with autonomous technology. But it is operated under the authority of officers located in the United States.
The test aims to demonstrate the potential of integrating autonomous technology to achieve a range of technology-based benefits for global companies operating fleets of cargo ships, tugs, ferries and many other types of commercial work vessels.
Machine Odyssey represents a new era in the relationship between man and technology that drives naval operations in the 21st century.
The tug is driven by Sea Machines’ standalone SM300 system equipped with long range machine vision.
This autonomous system is a sensor-propeller system that uses trajectory planning, obstacle avoidance redesign, vector chart data, and dynamic field construction to control flight from start to finish.
Autonomous merchant ships are arriving
The SM300 provides remote human commanders with an active planning environment with overlays live augmented that show mission, ship status, situational awareness, environmental data, and audio and video in real time from the ship from its many broadcast cameras.
And the Nellie Bly appears to be sailing past the electric cargo ship without a Yara crew. Which is expected to be launched by the end of 2021.
This ship uses a 7 megawatt battery. With a 900 kW propulsion system, she can sail at 13 knots from Heroya to Brevik in Norway – a distance of 13 kilometers.
The Sea Machines tug was built by the Dutch shipyard Damen and appears to be powered by a pair of outboard motors.
The company said you can follow the locomotive yourself as it is launched as the journey is broadcast 24/7.
The Nellie Bly carries two professional sailors and the occasional guest passenger during the voyage. Communicate with doors along the way to showcase the technology. The launch is scheduled for September 30 from Germany.
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