Here’s the Rolls-Royce boat of the future: Unmanned, space-age shipping
Rolls-Royce has unveiled the ship of the future, and it’s like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.
The British motoring giant has revealed concept technology that will allow for remote and autonomous shipping. Rolls-Royce showed off the space-age designs at Amsterdam’s Autonomous Ship Technology Symposium 2016 as part of its Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA).
But enough of that; here are some fancy pictures:
Speaking at the reveal, Oskar Levandar, VP of Innovation at Rolls-Royce, said: “This is happening. It’s not if, it’s when. The technologies needed to make remote and autonomous ships a reality exist.”
He continued:
“The AAWA project is testing sensor arrays in a range of operating and climatic conditions in Finland and has created a simulated autonomous ship control system which allows the behaviour of the complete communication system to be explored. We will see a remote controlled ship in commercial use by the end of the decade.”
So when will these autonomous ships be cruising around our seas? Unfortunately, there’s no exact timeline for the shipping revolution, by Rolls-Royce is aiming for a “full scale proof of concept demonstrator” by the end of 2017.
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What do you think of the Rolls-Royce robo-ships? Let us know in the comments.