Autonomous

Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology are working on a new autonomous search and rescue system made up of a marine vessel that can launch a fleet of fixed-wing drones to scout a predefined area, along with live-feed quadcopters.

Norway's Argeo has launched the first uncrewed survey and inspection vessel based on the Mariner X platform from Maritime Robotics. The Argus is expected to undertake mapping and inspection operations for offshore wind projects.

Following a number of technical setbacks, the Mayflower autonomous research vessel has successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean, clocking up 3,500 miles and arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on June 5.

An huge natural gas tanker has become the first large ship to make an ocean passage of more than 10,000 km under autonomous control. During its record-breaking run, the 122,000-tonne Prism Courage was able to locate and avoid other ships over 100 times.

It would cost a lot of money to send a boatload of marine scientists across the Atlantic Ocean, all of them conducting research along the way. That's where the Oceanus will come in, as plans call for it to do the job without any crew aboard.

China christened a remarkable new 290-foot (88-m) ship last week – the world's first semi-autonomous drone carrier. It'll carry, launch, recover and co-ordinate the actions of more than 50 other autonomous aerial, surface and underwater vehicles.

Several groups in Japan have been demonstrating fully autonomous ships in the last few months, and the latest, a 95-m container ship, has just completed a 790-km autonomous voyage starting and ending in the heavily congested waters of Tokyo Bay.

Colorado's Lightning eMotors is adding Level 2 and Level 4 autonomous capabilities to electric medium-duty commercial vehicles thanks to a partnership with Virginia's Perrone Robotics, and has already announced its first customer.

Back in 2020, Open Ocean Engineering launched an autonomous vessel designed to clear plastic waste from local waterways. After partnering with Razer last year for a radical redesign, a sleeker Clearbot has now started patrolling Hong Kong waters.

In a typical sailboat race, the course is marked with a series of buoys that have to be anchored to the seabed, and which may get pushed around by winds or currents. MarkSetBot addresses those problems, with internet-connected robotic buoys.

NVIDIA has been lending its expertise in computing to the world of autonomous vehicles for some time now, and a newly announced platform called Drive Map is designed improve the safety of these vehicles as they hit the streets.

In order to keep running at peak efficiency, solar panels regularly have to be cleaned of accumulated dust and other debris. Such panels can be difficult to reach, though, which is why the Helios system uses not one but two drones to do the job.