Self-sailing Mayflower ship to have another crack at Atlantic crossing next year
(2021/09/28)
- Reference: 1632780866
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/09/27/autonomous_mayflower_ship/
- Source link:
The Mayflower, the crewless, autonomous ship built with the help of IBM, will try to sail across the Atlantic again next year, after its first attempt failed shortly after it left the UK for the US.
Created by maritime non-profit Promare, the vessel was designed to not only steer itself but also collect data for scientists to study all sorts of stuff from microplastics to whales. The Mayflower was designed to [1]operate autonomously ; it has a mixture of cameras, radar sensors, and machine learning software to detect objects in its environment and navigate safely around cargo ships and fishing vessels. It also has GPS to stay on course, and runs on solar power with a diesel generator for getting through rough conditions.
In June, three days into an attempt to sail over 3,000 miles from Plymouth in the UK to its counterpart port Plymouth in Massachusetts, it [2]suddenly malfunctioned , and was brought back to British shores for some engineering attention.
[3]
A real-time [4]camera feed onboard the Mayflower was shut down; the breakdown was blamed on a mechanical issue that couldn’t be patched with software. After months of trying to figure out what went wrong, engineers [5]discovered a metal component of the ship’s generator had fractured.
[6]
[7]
The mishap caused diesel fuel to leak from the equipment, preventing it from working properly. Without this essential power source, the Mayflower was totally reliant on its solar panels and its speed dropped. Mission control directed the ship to limp back to base. The ship is now at sea again to resume data collection, though it isn’t straying too far away from human support while its software and hardware onboard continues to be tested.
[8]Mayflower, the AI ship sent to sail from the UK to the US with no humans, made it three days before breaking down
[9]FYI: There's a human-less, AI robot Mayflower ship sailing from the UK to US right now
[10]The human-devoid AI-powered Saildrone Surveyor ship just made it to Hawaii from SF
[11]UK funds hydrogen-powered cargo submarine to torpedo maritime emissions by 2050
The humans have made some adjustments and I’m back to collecting data about the ocean and sailing through the sea all by myself (with the not-so-secret stowaway @artiehassevenlegs). Soon we will be doing sea trials around the UK. Next year I’ll be back to crossing the Atlantic! [12]pic.twitter.com/FzpYzgwIPS — AI Captain - Mayflower Autonomous Ship (@AI_Mayflower) [13]September 16, 2021
“On 7 September 2021, Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) was re-launched to resume its testing and scientific research schedule,” [14]according to a statement on the mission’s official website.
“Science teams associated with the equipment installed on MAS will continue collecting and analysing data in order to establish the methodology of using autonomous platforms for oceanographic surveys and research...Camera and data feeds will be turned back on for the cruises along the UK coast planned for Autumn and Winter. The next attempt for the Atlantic Crossing is planned for Spring 2022.”
The Register has asked Promare and IBM for further comment. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/17/ibm_autonomous_ship/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/19/in_brief_ai/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YVKTiIWPNZwciZ@uUWTgRgAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21fpZEAAmwY
[5] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/24/autonomous-ai-ship/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YVKTiIWPNZwciZ@uUWTgRgAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YVKTiIWPNZwciZ@uUWTgRgAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/19/in_brief_ai/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/17/ibm_autonomous_ship/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/09/saildrone_surveyor_radar/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/16/hydrogen_cargo_sub/
[12] https://t.co/FzpYzgwIPS
[13] https://twitter.com/AI_Mayflower/status/1438584125670273024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[14] https://mas400.com/dashboard
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Created by maritime non-profit Promare, the vessel was designed to not only steer itself but also collect data for scientists to study all sorts of stuff from microplastics to whales. The Mayflower was designed to [1]operate autonomously ; it has a mixture of cameras, radar sensors, and machine learning software to detect objects in its environment and navigate safely around cargo ships and fishing vessels. It also has GPS to stay on course, and runs on solar power with a diesel generator for getting through rough conditions.
In June, three days into an attempt to sail over 3,000 miles from Plymouth in the UK to its counterpart port Plymouth in Massachusetts, it [2]suddenly malfunctioned , and was brought back to British shores for some engineering attention.
[3]
A real-time [4]camera feed onboard the Mayflower was shut down; the breakdown was blamed on a mechanical issue that couldn’t be patched with software. After months of trying to figure out what went wrong, engineers [5]discovered a metal component of the ship’s generator had fractured.
[6]
[7]
The mishap caused diesel fuel to leak from the equipment, preventing it from working properly. Without this essential power source, the Mayflower was totally reliant on its solar panels and its speed dropped. Mission control directed the ship to limp back to base. The ship is now at sea again to resume data collection, though it isn’t straying too far away from human support while its software and hardware onboard continues to be tested.
[8]Mayflower, the AI ship sent to sail from the UK to the US with no humans, made it three days before breaking down
[9]FYI: There's a human-less, AI robot Mayflower ship sailing from the UK to US right now
[10]The human-devoid AI-powered Saildrone Surveyor ship just made it to Hawaii from SF
[11]UK funds hydrogen-powered cargo submarine to torpedo maritime emissions by 2050
The humans have made some adjustments and I’m back to collecting data about the ocean and sailing through the sea all by myself (with the not-so-secret stowaway @artiehassevenlegs). Soon we will be doing sea trials around the UK. Next year I’ll be back to crossing the Atlantic! [12]pic.twitter.com/FzpYzgwIPS — AI Captain - Mayflower Autonomous Ship (@AI_Mayflower) [13]September 16, 2021
“On 7 September 2021, Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) was re-launched to resume its testing and scientific research schedule,” [14]according to a statement on the mission’s official website.
“Science teams associated with the equipment installed on MAS will continue collecting and analysing data in order to establish the methodology of using autonomous platforms for oceanographic surveys and research...Camera and data feeds will be turned back on for the cruises along the UK coast planned for Autumn and Winter. The next attempt for the Atlantic Crossing is planned for Spring 2022.”
The Register has asked Promare and IBM for further comment. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/17/ibm_autonomous_ship/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/19/in_brief_ai/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YVKTiIWPNZwciZ@uUWTgRgAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21fpZEAAmwY
[5] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/24/autonomous-ai-ship/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YVKTiIWPNZwciZ@uUWTgRgAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YVKTiIWPNZwciZ@uUWTgRgAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/19/in_brief_ai/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/17/ibm_autonomous_ship/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/09/saildrone_surveyor_radar/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/16/hydrogen_cargo_sub/
[12] https://t.co/FzpYzgwIPS
[13] https://twitter.com/AI_Mayflower/status/1438584125670273024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[14] https://mas400.com/dashboard
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: you mean
Imhotep
That puzzled me also, along with the statement that it took months to figure out that the generator was broken.
It's hard to imagine how the problem with the generator wouldn't be almost immediately identified during trouble shooting. Must be more to the story there.
Mechanical failure
diodesign
Just to clarify: from what's been reported, part of the generator fractured causing fuel to leak. The root cause of the leak, and subsequent failure of the generator, was what eluded them for a few months: they eventually found the break.
The ship was reliant on the generator to get through rough conditions; solar power wouldn't be enough. So without the genny, it had to go back home.
C.
you mean
a smart ship that didn't even have basic equipment monitoring that even old clunkers have ? Generator/alternator fail and you get a red light. Simple fuel flow analysis to indicate fuel loss or engine problem, let alone gas sensors to alert to fuel leaks. And this was a smart ship with AI ? How stupid can humans get ? How did it even get a license to operate ?