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The next-generation Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) is scheduled to leave Plymouth, England in April 2021. It is expected to make it to Plymouth, Massachusetts, two weeks later. Unlike the first Mayflower, this ship has no crew or passengers and is powered by renewable solar energy via solar panels with a biodiesel generator for back-up. 

It has been 400 years since the original Mayflower embarked on an over two-month journey that brought Puritan settlers from Europe, across the Atlantic Ocean, to colonize the New World in North America. To honor the anniversary, the IBM-designed ship will be guided by artificial intelligence (AI)

The third Mayflower makes the trip

The Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) is actually the third Mayflower and it is very different from the first two.

Although the MAS was originally scheduled to sail to the U.S. in September, the techno-pandemic delayed the launch to April 2021. 

In 1620, the first Mayflower ship was a charter by a group of English merchants called the London Adventurers. Blown off-course and battered by storms, the ship’s 102 passengers disembarked the day after Christmas in an area they named Plymouth.

In April 1621, the Mayflower returned to England. It’s fate after it made the trip back home is unknown.

In the 1950s, an exact replica of the Mayflower was built in England. It sailed 5,000 kilometers (3,106 miles) from England to Massachusetts, where it remains docked today.

Next-Generation AI Technology to do ocean research

The Mayflower Autonomous Ship will rely on the latest AI technology when it sets out to sea.

“We’ve got all sorts of cameras. We’ve got global positioning systems on either side,” MSubs Managing Director Brett Phaneuf said. The only thing it doesn’t have and won’t need is “people space.”

It took two years for an international team to turn Pharneuf’s vision into an autonomous ship. After the modern-day Mayflower retraces the 400-year-old passage to the New World, its ultimate mission will be to gather data on climate change and marine life.

The Mayflower’s progress will be followed in real-time on the interactive MAS400 web portal. Which provides updates on the MAS position, on-board status, and a stream of data from various research projects. 

"The civilian maritime world has, as yet, been unable to harness the autonomous drone technology that has been used so effectively in situations considered unsuitable for humans. It begs the question if we can put a rover on Mars and have it autonomously conduct research, why can’t we sail an unmanned vessel across the Atlantic Ocean and, ultimately, around the globe? That’s something we are hoping to answer with MAS."  Phaneuf claimed.

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