In the autonomous revolution that is underway, virtually every means of transportation will be self-driving. The automotive industry might still need a few decades before the first driverless car is commercially available. But what about other industries? Be prepared to say good bye to your favourite cab driver, machinist,..and maybe even your human pilot.
Autonomous Ships – Riding the Wave of the Future
In 2016, freight shipping accounted for 90% of world’s trade, which amounts to around 10.3 billion tons of product. Besides freight shipping, industries such as wind farming, oil/gas, fishing and environmental research, have ships at sea. An over-crowded sea and the market size of freight shipping make and interesting case for startups and multinationals, such as Rolls Royce, to automate maritime vessels. The first vessels could become seaborne as soon as 2020. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Fun fact: MIT is a frontrunner in the research on automated ships. The first major research project of autonomous boats in metropolitan areas is conducted in Amsterdam by MIT and the AMS Institute [5]. Another interesting project in the Netherland is led by captainai.com, which is developing AI navigation software [6].
Autonomous Helicopters
The first successful heli projects already came to fruition. One of them is the AACUS using LiDAR, cameras, on-board computers and reinforcement learning algorithms. The AACUS has been developed by Aurora, acquired by Boeing. It already completed multiple flights and made first cargo deliveries in 2017. Through reinforcement learning, robotic helicopters teach themselves to fly difficult manoeuvres by observing other helicopters. After learning through observation, they can fly their own aerobatic stunt show. Autonomous helicopters are particularly interesting to the marine (think autonomous warfare), as well as for people and cargo transportation. Most research is currently conducted by the the marine, NASA and universities, such as Stanford. [7] [8]
And many more…
Other means of transportation expected to go autonomous include planes, trains, taxis, trucks and shuttles. In the past decades, major advances have been made, however, the autonomous revolution is still further ahead than some of us would like to think. Do you believe in the dawn of the autonomous revolution?
