Whilst land and air based automation have received considerable attention over the past few years, there has also been a growing number of water based innovations.

Most of these have been in underwater domains, with scientific research an early application of automated craft.  There have been some fascinating projects on the surface too however, such as the University of Buffalo team that developed an automated yacht.  Indeed, there has even been the launch of robotic sailing tournaments, such as the World Robotic Sailing Championships and the International Robotic Sailing Regatta.

Suffice to say, these projects to date are at an incredibly early stage, and are thus done primarily to advance the field rather than offer anything for the commercial market.  That could be about to change however, with a Dutch competition, called Roboat, attracting researchers from around the world to develop autonomous vehicles to operate on Amsterdam’s vast canal network.

Flexible ferries

The project is interesting because not only can it provide automated means of ferrying both people and packages around the city, but it can also form bridges or landing stages on demand.

“Imagine a fleet of autonomous boats for the transportation of goods and people,” the team say. “But also think of dynamic and temporary floating infrastructure like on-demand bridges and stages, that can be assembled or disassembled in a matter of hours.”

Whilst the project has funding for the next few years, it’s still very early days for such automated craft and it’s perhaps unlikely that they will become a feature of our urban waterways any time soon.

What is perhaps more likely is that automation continues on the open oceans.  Just as research missions have been enthusiastic users of automated vessels, there are moves to make cargo vessels increasingly automated, with early forays automating tasks such as navigation.

It’s a vision that Rolls-Royce wholly endorse, with the company predicting earlier this year a future whereby craft are sailed without a single crew member.

Automation has undoubtedly received greater air time in terms of its possible impact on our roads and in our skies, but projects such as these remind us that the impact of automation may not end there.