The Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project

Re:The Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project by scooble on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @03:46AM (#22932892)

I suspect it can't by definition. It is not clear how an unmanned vessel can maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing (rule 5) for example.

It is possible that it has the ability to determine things like which tack another sailing vessel is on (which it will need if it is sailpowered) as well as identifying things like day shapes, light patterns and sound signals and adjusting its behaviour accordingly. I am a little doubtful though. Similar projects seem to rely on AIS for collision prevention, which will mean that it can't 'see' any recreational vessels who lack AIS type A.

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Re:The Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project by jackyinger on Monday April 20, 2020 @04:37PM (#22928233)

For those who aren’t avid boaters: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Regulations_fo...

Looking at that tiny wing sail, it’s gonna be sloowwww. Maybe that’ll help?

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Re:The Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project by WJW on Monday April 20, 2020 @05:23PM (#22928730)

20 knots is not all that slow. According to google average container ship speed is about 24 knots. Even the navy destroyer I used to sail on topped out at 30 knots using its gas turbines, which were only to be used for "serious purposes".

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Re:The Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project by contingencies on Monday April 20, 2020 @11:44PM (#22931643)

Very rough scale with respect to sailing vessels around 30-55 foot length... multihulls (fast = 20 knots, common = 15 knots, many = 10 knots), monohulls (fast = 12 knots, common = 8-10 knots, many = 6-8 knots). For an ocean-going trimaran, their 10 knot speed is not fast. It is quite likely the vessel's apparently near-fixed "wingsail" represents a very conservatively-rigged configuration that is biased for stability instead of speed.

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Re:The Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project by scooble on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @03:36AM (#22932853)

Thinking about it in the context of the colregs, 10kts is above the hull speed of a 40ft sailing yacht, and is probably plenty fast enough to sink that yacht in a collision.

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Re:The Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project by WJW on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @06:17AM (#22933578)

The documents on the website mentioned 20 kts, so that's what I went with.

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Re:The Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project by CocoaGeek on Monday April 20, 2020 @05:17PM (#22928671)

AFAIK, it's solar powered and not wind powered.

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Re:The Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project by adrianmonk on Monday April 20, 2020 @11:33PM (#22931590)

The infographic from IBM's site (http://filecache.mediaroom.com/mr5mr_ibmnews/184460/IBM_Auto...) says:

> PROPULSION SYSTEM Hybrid power: window/solar (with diesel generator backup)

And while I'm at it:

> SPEED Max: 10 knots

> JOURNEY TIME - PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND TO PLYMOUTH, MA Duration: Approximately 12 days

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