The autonomous Mayflower boat, piloted by an AI, will cross the Atlantic

The autonomous Mayflower boat, piloted by an AI, will cross the Atlantic

The NGO Promare has partnered with IBM for a great project: to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first crossing of British settlers to the United States. This "Mayflower" of the XXIe century will leave in September 2020 and the navigation will be entrusted to the artificial intelligence.

Almost 400 years ago, in September 1620, a ship left England to reach the north of the American continent. His name is the Mayflower, which became the symbol of the arrival of the first European settlers in the United States. To celebrate this anniversary, the NGO Promare and IBM decided to redo the boat trip, between Plymouth in England, and Plymouth in Massachusetts; and the inventor of Deep Blue decided to give the bar to ... an artificial intelligence!

This fully autonomous trimaran is simply called "Mayflower", it will leave in September, as its illustrious ancestor. To travel the 5,000 kilometers that separate the two continents, Promare and IBM have equipped their ship with solar panels, as well as wind turbines and a diesel engine to propel it.

With no crew or remote command, this autonomous boat will cross the Atlantic from September 2020. © IBM

AI will detect obstacles

This trip will not only be symbolic, as the ship will also be used to conduct experiments in areas such as maritime cybersecurity, marine mammal monitoring and the study of microplastics. For this project, IBM provided its PowerAI Vision technology, capable of detecting objects in images and videos. It will avoid obstacles and other hazards at sea. For this, the AI ​​will use radar and Lidar.

Thanks to the servers on the boat, everything works locally, without external connection, and the term "autonomous" takes all its interest. Simply, the data will be sent to both HQs, located on departure and arrival. For those who stay at the dock, the idea is to offer them virtual reality applications to board the Mayflower and to make the crossing "virtually".