Roboat

Last updated

Roboat is a research program on autonomous boats in Amsterdam. The program was scheduled to last from 2016-2021, is developing the world's first fleet of autonomous vessels. It focuses on moving people and goods, portable infrastructure and data gathering. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Roboat is a project of the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute). The research within the program is conducted by MIT, Delft University of Technology and Wageningen University and Research. The program has a budget of €25 million. Prototypes are tested in Amsterdam's canals. [9] [10] [11]

Contents

History

On 5 October 2018 a shuttle was tested, using 6-person autonomous boats following a circular route linking Oosterdokskade with the NEMO science centre, a crossing where building a fixed bridge is impossible as it is a through route for high-masted ships.

In 2019, the vessels learned how to dock together and organizing to support specific tasks.

In 2020, the first passenger-capable configuration was completed. Roboat III is 4 metres (13 ft) long and can carry and adapt to up to 5 passengers.

Two full-scale units had been deployed by October 2021, becoming the world's first urban autonomous vessels. [12] [13]

Related Research Articles

This is a timeline of transportation technology and technological developments in the culture of transportation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teleoperation</span> Operation of a system or machine at a distance

Teleoperation indicates operation of a system or machine at a distance. It is similar in meaning to the phrase "remote control" but is usually encountered in research, academia and technology. It is most commonly associated with robotics and mobile robots but can be applied to a whole range of circumstances in which a device or machine is operated by a person from a distance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vehicular automation</span> Automation for various purposes of vehicles

Vehicular automation involves the use of mechatronics, artificial intelligence, and multi-agent systems to assist the operator of a vehicle such as a car, lorries, aircraft, or watercraft. A vehicle using automation for tasks such as navigation to ease but not replace human control, qualify as semi-autonomous, whereas a fully self-operated vehicle is termed autonomous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unmanned surface vehicle</span> Vehicle that operates on the surface of the water without a crew

An unmanned surface vehicle, unmanned surface vessel or uncrewed surface vessel (USV), colloquially called a drone boat, drone ship or sea drone, is a boat or ship that operates on the surface of the water without a crew. USVs operate with various levels of autonomy, from remote control to fully autonomous surface vehicles (ASV).

Kent Larson is an architect and Professor of the Practice at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Larson is currently director of the City Science research group at the MIT Media Lab, and co-director with Lord Norman Foster of the Norman Foster Institute on Sustainable Cities based in Madrid. His research is focused on urban design, modeling and simulation, compact transformable housing, and ultralight autonomous mobility on demand. He has established an international consortium of City Science Network labs, and is a founder of multiple MIT Media Lab spin-off companies, including Ori Living and L3cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniela L. Rus</span> American computer scientist

Daniela L. Rus is a roboticist and computer scientist, Director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of the books Computing the Future and The Heart and the Chip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waymo</span> Autonomous car technology company

Waymo LLC, formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, is an American autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobileye</span> Israeli information technology company

Mobileye Global Inc. is an Israeli autonomous driving company. It is developing self-driving technologies and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) including cameras, computer chips, and software. Mobileye was acquired by Intel in 2017 and went public again in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of self-driving cars</span> Overview of the history of self-driving cars

Experiments have been conducted on self-driving cars since 1939; promising trials took place in the 1950s and work has proceeded since then. The first self-sufficient and truly autonomous cars appeared in the 1980s, with Carnegie Mellon University's Navlab and ALV projects in 1984 and Mercedes-Benz and Bundeswehr University Munich's Eureka Prometheus Project in 1987. In 1988, William L Kelley patented the first modern collision Predicting and Avoidance devices for Moving Vehicles. then, numerous major companies and research organizations have developed working autonomous vehicles including Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, Continental Automotive Systems, Autoliv Inc., Bosch, Nissan, Toyota, Audi, Volvo, Vislab from University of Parma, Oxford University and Google. In July 2013, Vislab demonstrated BRAiVE, a vehicle that moved autonomously on a mixed traffic route open to public traffic.

A robotaxi, also known as robot taxi, robo-taxi, self-driving taxi or driverless taxi, is an autonomous car operated for a ridesharing company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NuTonomy</span> Technology startup company

NuTonomy was an MIT spin-off technology startup company that made software to build self-driving cars and autonomous mobile robots. The company was founded in 2013. In August 2016, it launched its robo-taxi service in Singapore. In October 2017, Delphi Automotive purchased the company, which then became part of the Motional autonomous driving joint venture between Aptiv and Hyundai Motor Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Argo AI</span> Autonomous driving technology company

Argo AI LLC was an autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was co-founded in 2016 by Bryan Salesky and Peter Rander, veterans of the Google and Uber automated driving programs. Argo AI was an independent company that built software, hardware, maps, and cloud-support infrastructure to power self-driving vehicles. Argo was mostly backed by Ford Motor Co. (2017) and the Volkswagen Group (2020). At its peak, the company was valued at $7 billion.

Torc Robotics (Torc), an independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck, is an American autonomous truck company headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, with operations in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Austin, Texas; and Stuttgart, Germany. Torc is testing autonomous trucks in Virginia, New Mexico, and Texas and is taking a pure play approach to commercialization – focusing at first on one platform in one region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxa</span>

Oxa is an autonomous vehicle software company, headquartered in Oxfordshire, England, and founded by Paul Newman and Ingmar Posner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-driving truck</span> Type of autonomous vehicle

A self-driving truck, also known as an autonomous truck or robo-truck, is an application of self-driving technology aiming to create trucks that can operate without human input. Alongside light, medium, and heavy-duty trucks, many companies are developing self-driving technology in semi trucks to automate highway driving in the delivery process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buffalo Automation</span>

Buffalo Automation is an artificial intelligence (AI) startup that develops autonomous navigation technology for commercial ships, recreational boats, and water taxis with the goal to improve maritime safety. It is a private company based in Buffalo, New York. Thiru Vikram is the CEO of the company.

Drive.ai, a subsidiary of Apple Inc., is an American technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California that uses artificial intelligence to make self-driving systems for cars. It has demonstrated a vehicle driving autonomously with a safety driver only in the passenger seat. To date, the company has raised approximately $77 million in funding. Drive.ai's technology can be modified to turn a vehicle autonomous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yandex self-driving car</span> Robotaxi project

Yandex self-driving car is an autonomous car project of the Russian-based technology company Yandex. The first driverless prototype launched in May 2017. As of 2018, functional service was launched in Russia with prototypes also being tested in Israel and the United States. In 2019, Yandex revealed autonomous delivery robots based on the same technology stack as the company's self-driving cars. Since 2020, autonomous robots have been delivering food, groceries and parcels in Russia and the United States. In 2020, the self-driving project was spun-off into a standalone company under the name of Yandex Self-Driving Group.

Saildrone, Inc. is a United States company based in Alameda, California, that designs, manufacturers, and operates a fleet of unmanned/uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), or ocean drones, known as "saildrones". The company was founded by engineer Richard Jenkins in 2012.

DeepRoute.ai is a Chinese robotaxi startup based in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.

References

  1. ↑ "Roboats ahoy: Amsterdam canals picked to test self-driving fleet". Reuters. 2017-09-19. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  2. ↑ Condliffe, Jamie. "Fleets of robotic boats are getting ready to set sail". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  3. ↑ "Roboat Q&A". AMS Institute. 2016-09-18. Archived from the original on 2016-09-25. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  4. ↑ "Roboat / MIT Senseable City Lab". senseable.mit.edu. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  5. ↑ Monks, Kieron. "Self-driving boats unleashed in Amsterdam". CNN. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  6. ↑ Lott-Lavigna, Ruby. "Self-driving boats will soon be setting sail". WIRED UK. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  7. ↑ "Amsterdam to get driverless 'roboats' on canals". Sky News. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  8. ↑ "Get ready, self-driving boats are coming, too". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  9. ↑ "Zelfvarende boten in Amsterdamse grachten". nrc.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  10. ↑ "Self-Driving Robot Boats, Coming Soon to Amsterdam". CityLab. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  11. ↑ "Self-driving boats will be tested on Amsterdam's canals next year". The Verge. 2016-09-19. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  12. ↑ Lavars, Nick (2021-10-28). "MIT deploys first full-scale autonomous Roboat on canals of Amsterdam". New Atlas. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  13. ↑ Gordon, Rachel. "Self-driving Roboats set sail in Amsterdam canals". Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Retrieved 15 November 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.