Safe Drivers

from WorkBoat November 2022

On the Ways

Autonomous self-piloting system’s goal is to provide safe and reliable navigation.

By Michael Crowley, Correspondent

Advocates for new unmanned autonomous commercial boats haven’t had too much to be excited about recently.

“There was a whole bunch of interest and then it backed off,” said Bob Clark MetalCraft Marine’s contract manager in Watertown, N.Y.

Whereas the tempo is more intense for autonomous Navy vessels. The most noteworthy example is the Navy’s $122 million contract awarded to Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, La. The contract is to initially build three to six mine countermeasures unmanned surface vehicles with options for another 24. It won’t be an entirely new venture for the Navy, which started using unmanned vehicles at the end of World War II.

One exception to the relative inactivity in the commercial workboat market is Sea Machines Robotics, Boston. It has teamed up with First Harvest Navigation, Norwalk, Conn., for the rst U.S. autonomous hybrid cargo vessel.

The Captain Ben Moore is a 63'×21.3' aluminum catamaran designed by Australia-based Incat Crowther and built by Derecktor Shipyards, Mamaroneck, N.Y. The hybrid vessel (a WorkBoat magazine 2019 Signi cant Boat winner) was delivered to First Harvest in June 2019, with two Cummins QSB6.7 diesels and lithium batteries connected to a pair of BAE Systems HybriDrive electric motors.

In early 2021 First Harvest “reached out to Sea Machines for autonomous operations,” said Vanya Banjac, marketing director for Sea Machines Robotics.

That was after Sea Machines had invited Bob Kunkel, First Harvest Navigation’s president, to Boston Harbor to ride on a couple of boats out tted with Sea Machines autonomous systems. “I was thoroughly impressed,” said Kunkel.

The autonomous, hybrid-powered 63' Captain Ben Moore transports refrigerated fresh produce and meat products across Long Island Sound.

SM300 AUTONOMOUS SYSTEM

That led to Kunkel awarding a contract to Sea Machines to out t the Captain Ben Moore with its SM300 autonomous command and remote-helm control system. The system allows the vessel to work between Norwalk, Conn., and the north shore of Long Island, N.Y., transporting food and other products across Long Island Sound, faster, more reliably and cheaper than by truck. It also “relieves some of the congestion in moving products on our roadways,” said Banjac.

“While having navigational tasks, [the SM300] will also perform collision avoidance maneuvers,” she added, noting that the SM300 was installed on the tug Nellie Bly that circumnavigated Denmark. “We controlled the entire navigation of (the tug) from our Boston of ce.” It was autonomously controlled 97% of the time and “was the world’s rst autonomous navigation of a country.” (See WorkBoat, December 2021, page 58)

That was an ocean journey of a little more than 1,000 nautical miles. It was referred to as “The Machine Odys-

First Harvest Navigation

Sea Machines SM300 being installed on the Captain Ben Moore.

sey” and was designed to prove that the world’s waterways were ready for long-range autonomy. The Captain Ben Moore’s current run is much shorter. The

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trip from Norwalk to Long Island takes about 70 minutes. Then the cargo is put in a van and hauled another 45 to 60 minutes to Huntington, on Long Island’s north shore. The same delivery by truck takes about 11 hours, or two days when driver restrictions apply.

That time difference, especially when a truck is carrying less than a full load of refrigerated cargo, “is where we can be competitive,” said Kunkel, who added that he has been “working trying to get coastal shipping back into the U.S. for quite a long time.” Autonomous vessels like the Captain Ben Moore are a way to reach that goal.

In November, Kunkel plans to expand the Captain Ben Moore’s itinerary, bringing the boat up the Hudson River to transport agricultural products as well as beef and pork from the mid-Hudson Valley to Long Island and possibly New York City. Beyond that is the possibility of transporting scallops, shellfish and finfish from Long Island to Connecticut. There is also some interest in making Fed Ex and UPS deliveries and, “we are authorized to carry alcohol across the Sound. First time that’s been approved since prohibition.”

COAST GUARD APPROVAL

First Harvest is working with the Coast Guard to fully approve the autonomous system. Testing for that approval is done in four phases. The first phase was to determine that the SM300’s AI provides a safe level of navigation. In September, second phase testing was under way, which includes voyage testing from Norwalk across Long Island Sound, selecting speeds and waypoints. There’s also a fully manned one-hour voyage, activating the collision avoidance system and identifying designated targets. “Now it picks up targets on the radar or AI, but not necessarily knowing if it’s a tugboat or a paddle boarder,” Kunkel said.

Sea Machines SM300 consists of the console and the user interface on the laptop screen. In this case the vessel’s mission is defined by the red waypoints on the screen. On the right side of the screen are settings and waypoints that can be customized. The blue boxes show camera images of water in front of an autonomous vessel.

In September, First Harvest said that there haven’t been any problems with the SM300 system. The system has “full internet connections throughout the boat and we can monitor everything from our operations center, in the machinery space, navigation wise, forward and aft, port and starboard,” Kunkel said. He expects testing to be completed by the end of October, making the Captain Ben Moore fully operational.

In the case of the boat’s being run from the operations center after the system’s final approval, the operator would need to meet the same licensing requirements as the captain on the boat. “The system will eventually be able to be run like a drone, and the captain would not have to have control,” said Kunkel. The boat can also be controlled from anywhere on the Captain Ben Moore using Sea Machines’ optional belt pack remote-helm control add on.

Once it’s been determined that the Sea Machines SM300 autonomous self-piloting system provides safe and reliable navigation, what does that mean for the boat’s crew, which has consisted of a 50ton captain and two deckhands?

The deckhands are normally on the bridge, but as the boat is coming into Huntington or Norwalk, Kunkel said they could be “moving cargo out of the refrigerators. That saves time. We see (it) as a value to us.”

Kunkel has also been talking to the Coast Guard about crew exchanges once Sea Machines SM300 system has been fully approved. The example he gives is if the boat is in Norwalk but one of the two deckhands is in Long Island.

“Can I switch the system on and take the boat across one-man short, instead of taking a crewboat to bring him back up?” Kunkel asked. He has yet to hear back from the Coast Guard.

“We’re just starting to get everyone believing in the technology — hybrid and autonomy,” Kunkel said. “Got a lot of balls in the air, trying to get this so it is profitable and can start building more boats — 10 boats.”

If this occurs, Kunkel would be a lot closer to his goal of bringing coastal shipping back to New England.

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