Mayflower Autonomous Ship is loaded with future-focused technology as it prepares for historic, fully unmanned trans-Atlantic voyage

May 6, 2021 | Amy French

Roughly 400 years ago, 101 people known as pilgrims made a risky, historic trans-Atlantic voyage from Plymouth, UK, toward Plymouth, Mass., in a ship called the Mayflower. This month, a collaboration of maritime boundary pushers aims to launch a second Mayflower to repeat the journey  – this time with no humans aboard.

“This isn’t a human-in-the-loop thing … with two joysticks steering it like a big radio-controlled boat,” IBM United Kingdom CTO Andy Stanford-Clark told XPONENTIAL attendees in his keynote address on the Mayflower Autonomous Ship Thursday morning. “This is – once we sail away from the port, the AI captain is in complete command of the vessel.”

The Mayflower project is today a collaboration among multiple partners, including the marine research nonprofit ProMare, the submarine and surface vessel manufacturer MSubs, the AI design company Marine AI Ltd, and IBM as the lead technology partner.

But it was originally the brainchild of the project’s managing director, Brett Phaneuf, who is also a co-founder of ProMare.

“We’re not looking back,” said Phaneuf in a later session on the MAS, emphasizing that while the project draws inspiration from something that happened 400 years ago, it is more focused on a vision of the future. “For us, that’s autonomy and AI-enabled systems that collect data from the ocean to help us all understand the planet better – and it’s also an awful lot of fun.”

The aim of the voyage is twofold. First, the MAS must face the challenge of surviving – testing the limits of what Phaneuf called “extreme AI and machine-learning-based autonomy.” But along the way, it will also conduct scientific experiments on pollution and oceanic chemistry, climate change and sea levels, and the songs of whales and other sea mammals, among other topics.

A manned ship capable of such research might cost £100 million and wouldn’t be able to stay at sea as long, said Stanford-Clark. He noted that the size and expense of a ship rise quickly if it must include things like sleeping quarters, food storage, headroom and toilets.

By contrast, the MAS is relatively small at just 16 meters long and 6 meters wide. And its cost, Stanford-Clark said: About £1 million.But is it seaworthy? That question makes the journey itself one big experiment.

Preparations, Stanford-Clark said, have included years of capturing images of things the ship’s AI captain might encounter – from boats of different sizes and shapes to icebergs to seagulls – and training the system to interpret such visuals correctly in real life.He explained that the ship also has an “operational decision manager,” software that has been trained to follow collision regulations that might require the AI captain to adjust its plans.

“So the operational decision manager takes the proposed route from the AI captain and says, “OK, good so far, but you’re planning to pass in front of that ship. Actually, the rules say you have to pass behind it to safety. So I’ve changed your route.”

The array of impressive equipment goes on, but nothing can entirely eliminate the dangers and unpredictability of long-range ocean travel for a virgin vessel. That raises the question: Are project planners really prepared to let the new Mayflower fail if the technology can’t handle what the ocean dishes out?

“For me,” Phaneuf said, “it’s a success if we try. There’s no assurance of a successful crossing. We’re certainly not going to let it be involved in a collision, so if we believe that’s going to happen, I’m willing to (intervene). But other than that … we don’t want to lose the vessel, but it’s a risk we’re willing to take to learn about the limits of the vessel’s capability and the software that we’ve built.”

The exact launch date of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship will depend on weather updates, but plans aim for the second half of May. To follow the progress of the ship, visit www.MAS400.com.