AUTO EVOLUTION GLITCH SUFFERS NEWS 19TH JUNE 2021 REPORTS MEDIA ARTICLES LATEST UNMANNED ATLANTIC CROSSING MAYFLOWER IBM PLYMOUTH

MAYFLOWER ATLANTIC VOYAGE - The Mayflower's direction of travel is the reverse of the Scout and Voyager autonomous Atlantic attempts that took advantage of trade winds. The Mayflower will be heading into prevailing winds and currents. If sail powered, she would need to tack. But powered by a diesel engine, with support from the deck mounted solar panels, there may be no need for that - except, that we saw her struggling when out at sea. Energy from nature is used to power the onboard AI and satellite comms. Many media reports inaccurately refer to wind power as a feature of the MAS, but you can plainly see that there is no wind turbine or wing-sail.

AUTO EVOLUTION 19 JUNE 2021 - GLITCH AHEAD OF UNMANNED ATLANTIC CROSSING

Two steps forward, one step back: even the most revolutionary, record-breaking endeavors can suffer setbacks. Research organization ProMare and partner IBM have just had their first, with the fully autonomous trimaran Mayflower.

On June 15, Mayflower, a fully automated trimaran with zero crew onboard, started on what would be the world’s first crossing of the Atlantic by a large autonomous vessel. On June 18, Mayflower was back to its starting point in England, having been called back due to some unspecified (but minor) glitch.

Those trying to access the mission dashboard for the live progress of the ship will now find that the ship is offline. Instead, they’re welcomed by a brief message, reading, “MAS400 has developed a small mechanical problem and is going back to base so we investigate further. We hope to get turned around and on our way as soon as possible.”

MAS400 is the official name of the trimaran, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship, a 5-ton, 50-foot (15-meter) tri-hulled ship packed with AI, sensors and tech, and theoretically able to cross the ocean, collect impressive amounts of data, and adjust and optimize course.

It’s a years-long project by research organization ProMare and IBM, which provided most of the software, and it departed from Plymouth, England, heading to Plymouth, Massachusetts by way of the Isles of Scilly and Privincetown on Cape Cod.

ProMare doesn’t offer an estimate for the delay, but once Mayflower is ready to set off again, it should complete the journey in about three weeks. The possibility of a glitch mid-trip was a primary concern from the start, as the video below shows: it’s one thing when something trivial breaks in the middle of the Atlantic and you have a competent crew to fix it, and it’s an entirely different story when there’s no one on board. By Elena Gorgan

DAY/MONTH	POSITION	AVE SPEED	DIST COVERED
-	-	-	-
Launch 15 June 2021	Plymouth, Devon, UK	Setting off	-
Day 1 16 June 2021	English Channel	-	-
Day 2 17 June 2021	-	Wandering minstrel	-
Day 3 18 June 2021	Washington Post report AI News - Sets sail	Turning back	-
Day 4 19 June 2021	Auto Evolution Ocean Crew - In Atlantic	Glitch	-
Day 5 20 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 6 21 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 7 22 June 2021	Atlantic	Stalled	-
Day 8 23 June 2021	Atlantic (English Channel)	No data recorded	-
Day 9 24 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 10 25 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 11 26 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 12 27 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 13 28 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 14 29 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 15 30 June 2021	-	-	-
Day 16 1 July 2021	-	-	-
Day 17 2 July 2021	-	-	-
Day 18 3 July 2021	-	-	-
Day 19 4 July 2021	-	-	-
Day 20 5 July 2021	-	-	-
Day 21 6 July 2021	-	-	-
Arrival July 2021	Plymouth, Ma, USA	-	-

The first solar boat to travel around the world was the PlanetSolar, coming home on the 4th of May 2012. Computing power was not as advanced as it is today, when PlanetSolar set off on 27th September 2010, following the Sunshine Route, first shown in London at the 1994/95 Boat Show. Then in January 2013 a patent specification for a COLREGs compliant, unmanned autonomous navigation system was filed by a BMS engineer ( now our IP) with the suggestion in 'Claims' for using a solar powered trimaran (patent granted 12 June 2019) as a suitable hull configuration. This patent also included wind energy harvesting as originally advertised for the Mayflower 400.

JOURNEY TIME

The original wooden 30-meter Mayflower took 66 days to carry the Pilgrims, Founding Fathers from the U.K. to what is now the U.S. The voyage would have involved a lot of tacking, because sailing ships cannot sail directly into the wind. But the new sail-less aluminium boat should take two to three weeks (14-21 days) depending on how strong the prevailing trade winds are, and assuming no technical glitches or marine accidents - the whole point of the COLREGs compliant navigation system.