The 15 meter long Mayflower is a cooperation project between IBM and the Austrian association for the promotion of marine research Promare. The fully automatic trimaran should be able to scan the horizon for possible dangers, make independent decisions and change its course based on live data.

During its mission, the ship will also collect data on the state of the sea, reports Technology Review in its January issue (from the 17. 12. can be ordered at the kiosk or online). The ship is equipped with 15 solar panels, each only three millimeters thick and delivering a maximum of around 2.5 kilowatts of electrical power.

The ship is propelled by a sail fin, which drives the boat to an average cruising speed of ten knots (18, 5 km / h). In addition, two 20 – kilowatt motors can bring the Mayflower purely electrically to a speed of four to five knots. For IBM, the project is primarily an opportunity to demonstrate technical skills in Edge Computing – the operation of local AI systems.

Learning AI systems have made considerable progress in recent years, the processing of data – such as voice or videos – but still often happens in the cloud today. Despite the satellite connection, the ship will not always be online during its voyage. The AI ​​captain must therefore process incoming data from the cameras, radar, depth gauge and position and weather data directly on board in real time.

For this purpose, a computer optimized for AI software is on board, which is equipped with special computers from Nvidia, among other things. However, IBM is not the only company working on autonomous ships.

The ship supplier Kongsberg is currently furthest. From 2021 he wants to let the electric container ship Yara Birkeland commute between two ports along the Norwegian coast – initially manned, then remote-controlled and from 2022 autonomous. The project is currently suspended due to the corona pandemic.

(bsc)