OCEAN CREW 15TH UNMANNED VOYAGE NEWS 19TH JUNE 2021 NEWS REPORTS MEDIA ARTICLES LATEST TRANS ATLANTIC ATTEMPT MAYFLOWER CAPTAIN IBM FROM PLYMOUTH ENGLAND

MAYFLOWER ATLANTIC VOYAGE - The Mayflower'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 comms. 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.

OCEAN CREW 19 JUNE 2021 - UNMANNED VESSEL MAYFLOWER SET OFF ON TRANSATLANTIC VOYAGE

IBM Corporation and ocean research nonprofit ProMare announced that the autonomous vessel Mayflower (MAS400) is now in international waters trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean and reach the US coast.

The vessel started sailing from Plymouth (UK) on June 15. There is not a single person on board, control is carried out by the AI Captain system, which receives data from dozens of sensors.

It is estimated that the journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the Massachusetts coast will take about three weeks. During this time, Mayflower will collect scientific information that relates, in particular, to microplastics and the state of populations of marine animals.

Mayflower has been in development for several years. The trimaran has a mass in the region of five tons, its length is 15 meters, and its width is 6.2 meters. The vessel is powered by a solar-powered hybrid electric motor. The Mayflower can reach a top speed of 10 knots (19 kilometers per hour).

The name of the ship is a tribute to the memory of the first settlers who arrived in North America. The name Mayflower was a merchant ship on which the British crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1620 and founded the Colony of Plymouth, one of the first North American settlements of the British.

The United States is now actively developing unmanned vehicles. One of the main events of the year on this topic was the delivery to the US Navy of the Seahawk, the "twin" of the famous Sea Hunter. Tests of the latter began in 2016. It is assumed that such military units, acting autonomously, will make it possible to more effectively identify enemy submarines.

Compared to the first ship, the Seahawk has some improvements in electrical systems, payload securing systems and operator control station.

In 2019, the Chinese began testing their unmanned spacecraft. The JARI-USV boat has received a modular scheme popular today, thanks to which it can solve a wide range of tasks, including the fight against enemy ships. Among the most interesting features is the ability to use an eight-cell vertical launcher.

DAY/MONTH	POSITION	AVE SPEED	DIST COVERED
-	-	-	-
Launch 15 June 2021	Plymouth, Devon, UK	Setting off	-
Day 1 16 June 2021	English Channel	-	-
Day 2 17 June 2021	-	Wandering minstrel	-
Day 3 18 June 2021	Washington Post report AI News - Sets sail	Turning back	-
Day 4 19 June 2021	Auto Evolution Ocean Crew - In Atlantic	Glitch	-
Day 5 20 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 6 21 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 7 22 June 2021	Atlantic	Stalled	-
Day 8 23 June 2021	Atlantic (English Channel)	No data recorded	-
Day 9 24 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 10 25 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 11 26 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 12 27 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 13 28 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 14 29 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 15 30 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 16 1 July 2021	-	-	-
Day 17 2 July 2021	-	-	-
Day 18 3 July 2021	-	-	-
Day 19 4 July 2021	-	-	-
Day 20 5 July 2021	-	-	-
Day 21 6 July 2021	-	-	-
Arrival July 2021	Plymouth, Ma, USA	-	-

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.

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

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/