20 knots is not all that slow. According to google average container ship speed is about 24 knots. Even the navy destroyer I used to sail on topped out at 30 knots using its gas turbines, which were only to be used for "serious purposes".
Very rough scale with respect to sailing vessels around 30-55 foot length... multihulls (fast = 20 knots, common = 15 knots, many = 10 knots), monohulls (fast = 12 knots, common = 8-10 knots, many = 6-8 knots). For an ocean-going trimaran, their 10 knot speed is not fast. It is quite likely the vessel's apparently near-fixed "wingsail" represents a very conservatively-rigged configuration that is biased for stability instead of speed.
Thinking about it in the context of the colregs, 10kts is above the hull speed of a 40ft sailing yacht, and is probably plenty fast enough to sink that yacht in a collision.
I suspect it can't by definition. It is not clear how an unmanned vessel can maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing (rule 5) for example.
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.
Looks like they have found their new 'Watson' for the Ocean. At least this one probably does something useful. Everything IBM does using buzzwords seems to be to keep their consultancy business thriving and staying in the news.
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.
Sorry for the tangent, but I am surprised to see a dedicated section to Blockchain on their site. Its right alongside Cloud, IoT and Security. Wonder what they do with it.
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 was all the rage a few years back; everyone had an aspirational blockchain project. It being IBM, they’ll probably vaguely keep at it long after it’s passé.
> 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.
Yes! Not only does Mary Celeste have a way cooler name and backstory than the Mayflower, it also carries fewer weird colonial/imperialist connotations.
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