An unmanned robot ship designed to recreate the historic voyage of Mayflowers across the Atlantic 400 years ago began to cross the sea this week.
Mayflower Autonomous Ship (Mass) a Travel 3,500 miles (5,630 km) from Plymouth, UK to Massachusetts, USA.
The creators of the project say that this journey will take about three weeks.
During the voyage experiments will be conducted, information on marine life will be collected and samples of plastic waste will be conducted.
Created by promar, a non – profit marine research firm, and computer giant IBM, Mass Trip is part of the May Dayflower May 400 celebrations.
The creators of the project said that the unmanned ship was created to showcase technological developments for centuries after the pilgrims left for the New World.
The autonomous ship Mayflower is in the Atlantic Ocean. – Photo: Oliver Dickinson for IBM / Promire
The 15 meter long Trimaran is solar powered. It is driven by an artificial intelligence (AI) capable of speeds of up to 10 knots (20 km / h)., Receives information from six cameras and 50 sensors.
On Tuesday (15/06) the vehicle left Plymouth for the Silly Islands. In the opinion of the developers, on Wednesday (16/06) it re-emerged and entered international waters.
The actual crossing lasted 2 months
Project Director Brett Fanouf said he was incredibly upset and would be completely tense for the next three weeks.
“I know everyone on my team has the same knot in their belly hole. No one has ever finished (a trip like this), but the weather is perfect for it.”
The real Mayflower was big and attractive, but it was slow to lead and relied on humans. – Photo: IBM
The original Mayflower was a 30-meter-long three-masted wooden vessel with canvas ships that had a speed of 3 knots (6 kilometers per hour).
At the time, 102 passengers and a crew of about 30 were being flown from Plymouth to Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
It took more than two months to cross 1620.
The 2020 version is made of aluminum composite with a backup diesel generator along with solar powered batteries.
The progress of the robot ship can be tracked on the MAS400 website.
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