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The Mayflower Autonomous Ship Has Reached North America: Why
This Pioneering Transatlantic Voyage
By Rob High | IBM Fellow, VP & CTO, Networking & Edge Computing
June 06, 2022
Matters for the Advancement of AI and Automation Technology
Across Every Industry
In a voyage lasting 40 days and conquering approximately 3,500
unmanned miles at sea, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship arrived in
North America in Halifax, Nova Scotia on June 5, 2022
Following two years of design, construction and AI model
training, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) was officially
launched in September 2020. Fast forward to today, June 6, 2022,
we celebrate the completion of MAS’s historic transatlantic
voyage from Plymouth, UK to its North American arrival in
Halifax, Nova Scotia yesterday, June 5.
With no human captain or onboard crew, MAS is the first nautical
vessel to complete an unmanned, crewless voyage across the
Atlantic Ocean.
MAS was designed and built by marine research non-profit ProMare
with IBM acting as lead technology and science partner, with IBM
automation, AI and edge computing technologies powering the
ship’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Captain to guide the vessel
and make real-time decisions while at sea.
On board the ship, there are 6 AI-powered cameras, more than 30
sensors and 15 Edge devices, all of which input into actionable
recommendations for the AI Captain to interpret and analyze.
This makes it possible for the AI Captain to adhere to maritime
law while making crucial split-second decisions, like rerouting
itself around hazards or marine animals, all without human
interaction or intervention.
The AI Captain has learned from data, postulates alternative
choices, assesses and optimizes decisions, manages risk, and
refines its knowledge through feedback, all while maintaining
the highest ethical standards – which is similar to how machine
learning is applied across industries like transportation,
financial services, and healthcare. And furthermore, there’s a
transparent record of the AI Captain’s decision-making process
that can help us humans understand why the captain made certain
decisions… transparency that is all too important in these
heavily regulated industries.
Why MAS Matters: Harnessing the Power of Data
The AI Captain is also the crux of why we at IBM believe that
MAS’s experimental voyage will be a catalyst for the advancement
of AI and AI-powered automation at the edge in various
applications across industry.
For example, leveraging AI to make sense of supply chain and
logistics data helps manufacturers and distributors avoid supply
chain disruption – taking advantage of localized compute at the
edge to improve decision making, lower operating costs, protect
personal and private information, and maintain the resilience of
the business. This same technology is widely used across
production environments to optimize processes, improve quality,
protect workers, and lower the cost of maintaining production
equipment.
 So,
while part of MAS’ mission was oriented around ocean research
and discovery to help tackle some of the ocean’s biggest
challenges, IBM is also focused on accelerating the application
of AI and automation to our clients’ businesses.
For us, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship’s challenges – saving time
and costs, making trustworthy predictions, and solving complex
data problems – are not unique. MAS represents what’s possible
when you harness the power of data (and continuous, autonomous
data collection) – and how technology like AI-powered automation
can take intelligent data and make it actionable to make
informed business decisions, no matter the industry.
The Mayflower’s journey began in the Atlantic. But this voyage
of discovery and technology advancement is only just beginning.
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