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TECHNOLOGY Thursday 14 sepTember 2017

Self-driving boats: The next tech transportation race

By MATT O’BRIEN that could surpass the de-
AP Technology Writer velopment of self-driving
BOSTON (AP) — Self-driving cars and trucks.
cars may not hit the road in The startup has signed a
earnest for many years - but deal with an undisclosed
autonomous boats could company to install the
be just around the pier. “world’s first autonomy
Spurred in part by the car system on a commercial
industry’s race to build containership,” Johnson
driverless vehicles, marine said this week. It will be
innovators are building remotely-controlled from
automated ferry boats for land as it travels the North
Amsterdam canals, cargo Atlantic. He also plans to
ships that can steer them- sell the technology to com-
selves through Norwegian panies doing oil spill clean-
fjords and remote-con- ups and other difficult work
trolled ships to carry con- on the water, aiming to
tainers across the Atlantic assist maritime crews, not
and Pacific. The first such replace them. Johnson,
autonomous ships could a marine engineer whose
be in operation within three previous job took him to In this Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 photo, a boat capable of autonomous navigation makes its way
years. One experimental the Italian coast to help sal- around Boston Harbor.
workboat spent this sum- vage the sunken cruise ship Associated Press
mer dodging tall ships and Costa Concordia, said that these small communities,” Ratti’s project is also looking automation of maritime
tankers in Boston Harbor, deadly 2012 capsizing and said Kongsberg CEO Geir at ways small vessels could tasks. “If you go back 150
outfitted with sensors and other marine disasters have Haoy. Japanese shipping coordinate with each other years, you had more than
self-navigating software convinced him that “we’re firm Nippon Yusen K.K. — in “swarms.” They could, for 200 people on a cargo
and emblazoned with the relying too much on old- operator of the cargo ship instance, start as a fleet vessel. Now you have be-
words “UNMANNED VES- world technology.” that slammed into a U.S. of passenger or delivery tween 10 and 20,” said
SEL” across its aluminum “Humans get distracted, Navy destroyer in a deadly boats, then transform into Oskar Levander, vice presi-
hull. “We’re in full autonomy humans get tired,” he said. June collision — plans to an on-demand floating dent of innovation for Rolls-
now,” said Jeff Gawrys, a GLOBAL RACE test its first remote-con- bridge to accommodate a Royce’s marine business.
marine technician for Bos- Militaries have been work- trolled vessel in 2019, part surge of pedestrians. CHANGING RULES OF THE
ton startup Sea Machines ing on unmanned vessels of a wider Japanese effort Since many boats already SEA
Robotics, sitting at the helm for decades. But a lot of to deploy hundreds of au- have electronic controls, There are still some major
as the boat floated through commercial experimen- tonomous container ships “it would be easy to make challenges ahead. Un-
a harbor channel. tation is happening in the by 2025. A Chinese alliance them self-navigating by crewed vessels might be
“Roger that,” said comput- centuries-old seaports of has set a goal of launching simply adding a small suite more vulnerable to piracy
er scientist Mohamed Saad Scandinavia, where Rolls- its first self-navigating cargo of sensors and AI,” Ratti or even outright theft via
Ibn Seddik, as he helped to Royce demonstrated a ship in 2021. said. remote hacking of a ship’s
guide the ship from his lap- remote-controlled tugboat CARS VS. BOATS ARMCHAIR CAPTAINS control systems. Some au-
top on a nearby dock. in Copenhagen this year. The key principles of self- Researchers have already tonomous vessels might win
The boat still needs human Government-sanctioned driving cars and boats are begun to design merchant public trust faster than oth-
oversight. But some of the testing areas have been similar. Both scan their sur- ships that will be made ers; unmanned container
world’s biggest maritime established in Norway’s roundings using a variety of more efficient because ships filled with bananas
firms have committed to Trondheim Fjord and along sensors, feed the informa- they don’t need room for might not raise the same
designing ships that won’t Finland’s western coast. tion into an artificial intel- seamen to sleep and eat. concerns as oil tankers ply-
need any captains or crews In Norway, fertilizer com- ligence system and output But in the near future, most ing the waters near big cit-
— at least not on board. pany Yara International is driving instructions to the of these ships will be only ies or protected wilderness.
DISTRACTED SEAFARING working with engineering vehicle. But boat naviga- partly autonomous. A decades-old internation-
The ocean is “a wide open firm Kongsberg Maritime on tion could be much easier Armchair captains in a re- al maritime safety treaty
space,” said Sea Machines a project to replace big-rig than car navigation, said mote operation center also requires that “all ships
CEO Michael Johnson. trucks with an electric-pow- Carlo Ratti, an MIT professor could be monitoring sev- shall be sufficiently and
Based out of an East Boston ered ship connecting three working with Dutch univer- eral ships at a time, sitting efficiently manned.” But
shipyard once used to build nearby ports. The pilot ship sities to launch self-navigat- in a room with 360-degree The International Maritime
powerful wooden clippers, is scheduled to launch next ing vessels in Amsterdam virtual reality views. When Organization, which regu-
the cutting-edge sailing year, shift to remote control next year. The city’s canals, the vessels are on the open lates shipping, has begun a
vessels of the 19th century, in 2019 and go fully autono- for instance, have no pe- seas, they might not need 2-year review of the safety,
his company is hoping to mous by 2020. destrians or bikers cluttering humans to make decisions. security and environmen-
spark a new era of com- “It would remove a lot of the way, and are subject to It’s just the latest step in tal implications of autono-
mercial marine innovation trucks from the roads in strict speed limits. what has been a gradual mous ships.q