O Mayflower transported some of the first European settlers across the Atlantic Ocean to North America, 400 years ago this year.
To celebrate the anniversary, another vessel is recreating this trip, with the help of artificial intelligence.
“We don’t know how it will be. Will you be able to cross the Atlantic?” software engineer and emerging technology expert Rosie Lickorish told Roxana Saberi of CBS News. “Fingers crossed that he has a successful first trip.”
The vessel, anchored in the port of Plymouth, in England, will have the latest navigation technology when it goes to sea – but will not take crew or captain.
“We have all kinds of cameras … We have global positioning systems on both sides,” said robotics expert Brett Phaneuf.
What it will not have, he said, is “space for people”.
Instead, the ship will be guided by artificial intelligence designed by IBM.
Phaneuf explained how the technology should work.
“He looks at his own cameras like eyes, he looks at radar, he looks at all kinds of other sensors,” he said. “Then he sets his own course and can deal with unique situations without any human intervention.”
These situations include encountering other ships during the voyage – something that software engineer Ollie Thompson is working hard to train the ship’s programming to recognize using more than a million different images.
“We are simulating what she is seeing,” he said of the boat.
Programmers are also defining the ship’s destination for Plymouth, Massachusetts, to retrace the Mayflower’s four-century passage.
The wooden merchant ship took 66 days to transport dozens of pilgrims across the Atlantic.
A replica left England for Massachusetts in the 1950s and is still anchored there today.
But Phenauf, who grew up near Plymouth, Massachusetts, wanted to mark the Mayflower’s famous past by looking to the future.
“I thought, well, we should build a ship that will speak for the next 400 years. What the maritime enterprise will be like then, unlike it was 400 years ago, ”he said.
An international team transformed their vision into the autonomous Mayflower powered by solar and wind power. Its mission is to learn more about the Earth’s oceans, gathering data on plastic pollution, water heating and its effects on marine life.
Software developer Rosie Likorish said the autonomous spacecraft is a more economical way to conduct research.
“It is very expensive at the moment for scientists to actually go on these research missions,” she said. “So having autonomous vessels like the Autonomous Ship Mayflower is a really important step and kind of allows us to go to these dangerous places and learn a lot more.”
In addition to saving costs, not having a crew means that the size of the vessel can be compact and there is no concern about someone getting sick or injured.
Brett Phenauf said his biggest concern would be if something broke.
If the boat capsizes, the team plans to track it via satellite and save it.
And if the unknown journey succeeds, Phenauf says he would celebrate the story while tracing a new path.
He said, “I want people to look back and think about how this was different from what other people were doing.”