Nelly Bly, a small boat, which is going to go around Denmark, to make a crossing of 1852 km in a completely autonomous way with passengers, but without crew
The Nelly Bly will leave the port of Hamburg in September. On board this tug there will be three people, but none of them will take the controls unless it is an emergency.
She is an autonomous ship and they want her to return to Denmark.
The journey is not short or easy. It is a route of 1,000 nautical miles (approximately 1852 km) full of maritime traffic of all kinds and with stops in equally busy ports.
The promoter of the trip is a company Sea Machines, whose objective is to test its new autonomous maritime navigation system, the SM300.
The SM300 is a computerized vision system that complements GPS guidance systems and all other nautical information enjoyed by human-piloted boats. The system is not only capable of following a predetermined route, it also detects obstacles and avoids them along that same route.
Only in the event that the autonomous navigation system suffers a failure and the boat has to be maneuvered in an emergency, will control be taken on board.
The three passengers will be replaced in shifts so they can rest.
The Nelly Bly crew who will truly control it will be across the ocean at Sea Machines headquarters in Boston.
