MAYFLOWER PILGRIMS VOYAGE - MAS's direction of travel is the reverse of the Scout and Voyager autonomous Atlantic attempts that took advantage of trade winds. The Mayflower will be heading into prevailing winds and currents. If sail powered, she would need to tack. But powered by a diesel engine, with support from the deck mounted solar panels, there may be no need for that - except, that we saw her struggling when out at sea. Energy from nature is used to power the onboard AI and satellite communications. Many media reports inaccurately refer to wind power as a feature of the MAS, but you can plainly see that there is no wind turbine or wing-sail on this craft. Lidar, Cameras and Radar are commonly used to navigate reaper drones, robotaxis and driver-less trucks. There is no reason why such a system should not perform well on the high seas.

BBC NEWS 19 JUNE 2021 - AI-driven robot Mayflower sails back after fault develops

A crewless ship designed to recreate the Mayflower's historic journey across the Atlantic 400 years ago is returning to the UK after developing a fault.

The Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) set sail on Tuesday on a 3,500-mile (5,630km) journey from Plymouth in the UK to Massachusetts in the US.

Project bosses said it had "just a minor mechanical issue" which they planned to assess and repair.

The voyage to the US had been expected to take about three weeks.

The 50ft (15m) long solar-powered trimaran is capable of speeds of up to 10 knots (20km/h) and is being navigated by on-board artificial intelligence (AI) with information from six cameras and 50 sensors.

It started suffering problems on Friday and has turned back for Plymouth.

Project director Brett Phaneuf said it was "just a minor mechanical issue on a part you'd find on any boat".

"But it limited our speed such that coming back was the prudent course of action," he said.

'GO AGAIN'

He added: "The AI systems worked perfectly though.

"We will assess, repair and go again".

The voyage is also due to see experiments conducted, with collections of data on marine life and sampling for plastic waste.

The vessel was created to show the development of technology in the centuries since the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World, bosses said.

The original Mayflower, a 100ft (30m) triple-masted wooden vessel with canvas sails and a top speed of three knots (6km/h), carried 102 passengers and a crew of about 30 from Plymouth to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The crossing in 1620 took more than two months.

The 2020 version of the boat is made of aluminium composite, with a back-up diesel generator to go with its solar-powered batteries. 

TRANSATLANTIC EVENT CALENDAR 2021

The IBM Mayflower MAS 400 is an autonomous trimaran powered by a diesel engine, piloted by a solar powered artificially intelligent computer system developed by IBM called 'AI Captain.'

A BIT OF HISTORY

The first solar boat to travel around the world was the PlanetSolar, coming home on the 4th of May 2012. Computing power was not as advanced as it is today, when PlanetSolar set off on 27th September 2010, following the Sunshine Route, first shown in London at the 1994/95 Boat Show. Then in January 2013 a patent specification for a COLREGs compliant, unmanned autonomous navigation system was filed by a BMS engineer ( now our IP) with the suggestion in 'Claims' for using a solar powered trimaran (patent granted 12 June 2019) as a suitable hull configuration. This patent also included wind energy harvesting as originally advertised for the Mayflower 400.

JOURNEY TIME

The original wooden 30-meter Mayflower took 66 days to carry the Pilgrims, Founding Fathers from the U.K. to what is now the U.S. The voyage would have involved a lot of tacking, because sailing ships cannot sail directly into the wind. But the new sail-less aluminium boat should take two to three weeks (14-21 days) depending on how strong the prevailing trade winds are, and assuming no technical glitches or marine accidents - the whole point of the COLREGs compliant navigation system.

LINKS, CONTACTS & REFERENCE

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/18/mayflower-ibm-autonomous-ship/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/18/mayflower-ibm-autonomous-ship/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/britain-launches-a-new-high-tech-mayflower-for-ocean-exploration/2020/09/16/a45b0ed8-f82f-11ea-be57-d00bb9bc632d_story.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/britain-launches-a-new-high-tech-mayflower-for-ocean-exploration/2020/09/16/a45b0ed8-f82f-11ea-be57-d00bb9bc632d_story.html

https://www.news4jax.com/business/2021/06/18/ai-powered-mayflower-beset-with-glitch-returns-to-england/

https://www.news4jax.com/business/2021/06/18/ai-powered-mayflower-beset-with-glitch-returns-to-england/
https://oceancrew.org/news/unmanned-vessel-mayflower-set-off-on-a-transatlantic-voyage_19-06-2021/
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/ai-powered-trimaran-mayflower-suffers-glitch-ahead-of-unmanned-atlantic-crossing-163547.html
https://artificialintelligence-news.com/2021/06/18/ai-captain-ibm-edge-ai-powered-ship-mayflower-sets-sail/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/dalvin-brown/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/dalvin-brown/