The Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project
newsroom.ibm.com
newsroom.ibm.com
The tiny Wave Gliders are quite useful. They're small, smaller than a surfboard. They're considered "marine debris" for vessel safety purposes. Electronics is so small today that they carry compute power, GPS, cameras, and Iridium for communications, plus other small oceanographic instruments as desired. They're tough enough to survive hurricanes. The control center has AIS info and steers them away from vessel traffic. Propulsion is mostly passive, using wave action to propel the glider forward. They're slow, but make steady progress.
It's a quiet, useful and profitable technology.
> Saildrone designs and manufactures wind and solar-powered autonomous surface vehicles called saildrones, which make cost-effective ocean data collection possible at scale. We are building the world's largest high-resolution ocean datasets, working with governments and private companies around the globe.
EDIT: I need to clarify a bit. I clicked on the link yes. However there are pages of it, wasn't sure if its aspirational or they actually make money off it
It is possible that it has the ability to determine things like which tack another sailing vessel is on (which it will need if it is sailpowered) as well as identifying things like day shapes, light patterns and sound signals and adjusting its behaviour accordingly. I am a little doubtful though. Similar projects seem to rely on AIS for collision prevention, which will mean that it can't 'see' any recreational vessels who lack AIS type A.
Looking at that tiny wing sail, it’s gonna be sloowwww. Maybe that’ll help?
> PROPULSION SYSTEM Hybrid power: window/solar (with diesel generator backup)
And while I'm at it:
> SPEED Max: 10 knots
> JOURNEY TIME - PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND TO PLYMOUTH, MA Duration: Approximately 12 days