INDUSTRY News
AI-enabled tug completes voyage autonomously
Sea Machines Robotics last month completed the world’s first 1,000-nautical-miles autonomous and remotely-commanded journey of a commercial vessel at sea. Under the project name “The Machine Odyssey”, the tug Nellie Bly (pictured below) completed its journey in just 129 operational hours, over 13 days. The programme was commanded by US Coastguard- licensed mariners stationed 3,000 miles away, in Boston. “This voyage marks a new era of at-sea operations, a new human-technology relationship in the 21st century,” said Michael Johnson, CEO of Sea Machines. “Over the last two millennia, it’s estimated that around one-hundred million vessels have transited these same Danish waters. Alhough vessels, cargos, nations and destinations have changed, the way these great ships are commanded has remained virtually constant, with humans on board making navigational decisions, undertaking manual control actuation and communicating person-to-person. Only now are we revealing a new method of operation. Remotely-commanded autonomous vessels provide the marine industries with the platform necessary to be competitive in the modern world, delivering significant increases in productivity and operational safety, digitised ultra-efficiency and response speed, and will provide actionable operational data for improved planning and business practices.”
The Nellie Bly employed first-of-its-kind AI-enabled, long- range computer vision and a sensor-to-propeller autonomous system, the Sea Machines SM300. Its technical features allowed for path planning, active domain perception, dynamic obstacle and traffic avoidance and re-planning, depth sensing and fusion of vectored nautical chart data. Nearly 97% the 1,027-mile journey was accomplished under fully- autonomous control, and the SM300 successfully performed 31 collision- avoidance and traffic separation maneuvers.
ABB COLUMN
MAKING CHANGE POSSIBLE WITH ROBOTS
While developments in technology have helped to transform modern manufacturing, the way that products are made has largely stayed the same. Many products continue to be made from virgin materials that are supplemented with a variety of additives to form a finished product. Depending on what these materials are and how easily they can be repurposed, it is likely that
they will be simply discarded at the end of their working life, with little thought given to recovering or reusing them. The topic of sustainability in manufacturing is coming to the fore
as awareness grows around climate change. In particular, there is a growing realisation of the potential for technology to transform performance by enabling changes in behaviour needed to minimise the longer-term environmental impact of manufactured goods. When it comes to robotic automation, discussions around sustainability have traditionally been confined to the reduced need for lighting and heating and waste minimisation through consistent production. While all these are still important, recent developments in technology have broadened the usability and applicability of robots, introducing them into new projects where they are used to change the way that products are manufactured and recycled. One example is a project by a company that uses robotic 3D printing to remanufacture the tons of waste plastic that washes up on the shores of the world’s island nations. After being converted into a material, this waste is re-used to create new objects such as chairs, also recyclable at the end of their working life. Another example is Irish technology start-up FPD Recycling, which has developed the first fully-automated robotic system of its kind for recycling the high-value but extremely-hazardous components contained within the estimated nine million computer and TV flat panel displays (FPDs) sold every year in the UK. When running at full capacity, the system, which uses ABB robots together with a patented AI-based system, is able to process up to 100 screens or 200 laptops an hour. While robots by themselves will not save the planet, imaginative schemes that enable their benefits to be applied to new approaches for production and recycling can help to pave the way to a more sustainable manufacturing industry and protect the planet.
Nigel Platt LBL Manager, UK and Ireland, ABB Robotics
automationmagazine.co.uk
Automation | November 2021
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