The new autonomous ship of Orca AI completed her first solo trip (without human help).
The company, which has been producing innovative technological solutions to avoid collisions in shipping for years, has worked extensively on the creation of this extraordinary ship. Despite its 749 tons of weight, the Orca boat managed to complete a journey of 40 hours avoiding any type of collision. Busy Tokyo Bay failed to placate her path, which was completed avoiding hundreds of different collisions.
This experiment quickly turned into a great celebration occasion, especially for Orca AI. Since its founding in 2018, the company has worked hard to create a truly functioning autonomous vessel capable of increasing the level of safety at sea.
We ensure safety in waterways and deep waters by remaining committed to our vision of reducing man-made errors through intelligent automated ships
From a company statement
The success of the autonomous ship Orca
The ship is almost a model for boats of the future: sensors and safety systems are practically everywhere. Leveraging Orca's knowledge in artificial intelligence and existing naval safety technologies, the experiment was a real success. We have already told about automatic ships, but this is by far the most advanced seen so far.
It is not a question of proceeding in a straight line: this autonomous ship (called Suzaka) has managed to navigate safely through crowded waterways to say the least. We are not surprised by the happiness of Yard Gross, founder and CEO of Orca AI:
The world's first commercial autonomous journey is a significant milestone on this journey, and we expect to see large shipping companies implement advanced artificial intelligence and computer vision technologies to materialize the vision of autonomous shipping.
Suzaka started from Tokyo Bay, following a complex route to the port of Tsumatsusaka (Ise Bay). It traveled about 790 kilometers, crossing a particularly busy stretch.
On the way, she managed to avoid more than 400 other boats. The experts counted 107 collision avoidance maneuvers, all driven by artificial intelligence. A system that has equipped the autonomous ship to have a 360 ° view, thanks to the 18 cameras installed on board the ship.
Is this the future of boats?
