Navy Tests Boat That Steers Itself

[unhappycamper]

Navy Tests Boat That Steers Itself
December 13, 2008
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

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In development for most of the past decade, an experimental craft is now plying local waters as its developers fine-tune its thinking.

~snip~

The boat is not driven by remote control; there is no one with a joystick back at home plate. The vessel has its own eyes, to perceive what's around it, and its own brain, to react to that information.

~snip~

On Friday morning, Sam Calabrese eased the USV out of the fort's docks and into the Chesapeake Bay. His job is to take the vessel to and from the test range and to take over if anything goes wrong. Three onboard technicians monitor the boat's systems. Eventually, none of them will ride along.

~snip~

The engine kicked in on its own and the boat began its patrol route, scanning the area with a combination of X-Band radar, stereo cameras, a global positioning system, an inertial measurement unit, a second camera array, and a marine VHF-based automatic identification system.

The data from these sensors were fed into software and through algorithms similar to those used on Mars by NASA rovers, which also have to operate autonomously.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/navy-tests-boat-that-steers-itself.html?wh=news

[doc03]

1. Why was me first thought the Exxon Valdez? n/t

[soothsayer]

2. dunno, cuz it should have been robocop or terminator,

in terms of technology that goes wrong.