A robotic cargo vessel has passed through the Panama Canal for the first time. The ship, an Overlord uncrewed surface vessel belonging to the US Navy, made a 4700-nautical-mile (8700-kilometre) journey including passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific almost entirely without human assistance.
Pentagon spokesperson Josh Frey says the vessel was in autonomous mode for more than 97 per cent of the trip鈥檚 length. A remote crew assisted when needed.
The US Navy has two of the 59-metre Overlord vessels, modified from crewed fast transport ships. They are catamarans that can cruise at 35 knots (65 kilometres per hour) with 540 tonnes of cargo. The modification to uncrewed operations cost more than $100 million for each vessel.
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While the technology to guide large vessels in this way may not be novel, the willingness of the canal authorities to allow the robotic ship to pass through indicates growing acceptance by the shipping industry.
Smaller uncrewed vessels have made extended journeys, including a surfboard-sized Wave Glider, which voyaged 14,700 kilometres across the Pacific in 2013. However, the Overlord trip including the Panama transit was the longest for a robot vessel of this size.
The Overlords are part of the US Navy鈥檚 Ghost Fleet project, which will supplement the crewed fleet with many smaller uncrewed ships controlled by AI with networked communications. The uncrewed vessels may take over less demanding roles, such as transport, clearing mines and submarine-hunting patrols.
The civil sector is also developing crewless vessels, but hasn鈥檛 yet reached the same operational stage as the military. Just as DARPA鈥檚 Grand Challenge advanced the technology for driverless cars in the early 2000s, the US Navy may pave the way for uncrewed ships.
鈥淭his is a significant achievement that definitely shows it is possible to undertake such passages and operations,鈥� says Jon Downes of the Maritime Engineering Group at the University of Southampton, UK. 鈥漇uch data will go a long way to understanding the difficulties and reliability issues of operating longer term autonomous operations.鈥�
鈥淭his is a big step for the marine industry and signifies the increasingly large role that uncrewed vessels are set to play,鈥� says Dan Hook at marine robotics company Ocean Infinity.
Hook suggests that uncrewed cargo ships will carry out commercial operation within five years.
