Part 26 - Anchors aweigh

The world of autonomous cars seems to be chugging along (pardon the pun) quite nicely with no great revelations or changes occurring, which makes the effort of writing a blog on the subject so much more difficult.
This would explain why there hasn't been many additions to mine lately.

So for something different I am going to look at the world of automation in a broader aspect.

Automated boats and ships are a coming thing for slightly different reasons than car automation.
Primarily its a cost thing.

To start with, have a look at this pioneer trying to do something that hasn't been done before, successfully sailing a totally autonomous boat from California to Hawaii.

A great pioneering event, not withstanding the fact that it's only a couple of feet long and weighs 60 pounds. (2 metres long and 27 kilos to all of us outside Trump world).
The full story is here. The fact is that he built this with both consumer and professional parts when required and it actually worked.

 On arrival in Hawaii, it was cleaned up, reprogrammed and is now on its way to New Zealand.
I for one will be very pleased if it makes it down to our part of the world and will be following its progress with great interest. If you are interested as well you can follow its progress here.

Amsterdam has launched a new project to develop "Roboats", fully autonomous boats that can be used for multiple purpose in a city with many canals.
In a project with a lot of hefty technology organisations behind it such as The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), The Amsterdam Institute of for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute), Delft University of Technology (TUD), and Wageningen University and Research (WUR), it has very good prospects.

The boats, or more accurately, barges, can be used for a myriad of purposes ranging from personal use for tours up to coupling them together as emergency bridges or temporary performance stages.

International shipping.
Due to its very nature and the development of containerisation the whole process really lends itself to automation.
Containerisation has been automated for some time now and has very little physical human input.
the following video shows just how far automation has come with the masses of automated vehicles moving containers around without a person in sight.

Because this is a secure industrial site it isn't open to the public so it has developed at a huge rate with little public knowledge. The sophistication of these systems is absolutely staggering and the sort of thing you would expect in a science fiction movie.

The ships that carry the containers now also have a high level of automation to increase efficiency and reduce crew costs. Many of the crew they do have are no longer specialists but more all rounders as many of the technical functions are fully automated.
This reduction in crew cost can produce huge savings, therefore offsetting the automation cost in the first place and providing a return on the investment in a shorter time frame.

Fully automated ships are on the drawing board and about to start manufacture.
January 2017 sees the first build begin for a fully automated container ship.

Where does shipping go from here?
Roll Royce has a vision and I must admit, if you have looked at the automation that already exists and given the communications technology available now, this vision could be far closer than you think.

So, to summarise, the subject of automated vehicles has a far wider implication than just cars and trucks.
Shipping automation is so far advanced but most people aren't aware of the level of technology in use and the next few years will see even more dramatic change.

Stay tuned....