Mayflower: Meet the robotic ship with no crew

A high-tech boat called the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) is setting off on a journey across the Atlantic ocean... with no crew onboard!

Yep that's right, the ship will be controlled by Artificial Intelligence, meaning no humans will be onboard during it's 3,000 mile journey.

The ship gets its name from the Mayflower, a famous historical ship which set sail 400 years ago from the UK to the US.

400 years later, the MAS will set off on the same journey in May, except this time it will be gathering important scientific data about the ocean.

How is the MAS different to other ships?

The Mayflower Autonomous Ship might look like it belongs in outer-space, but it is a scientific ocean-research vessel on a mission.

Measuring in at 15m long, and made from lightweight aluminium, the ship can skim over the waves at more than 10 knots (pretty speedy!)

The ship has been made by the non-profit organisation ProMare, and gets its power from solar-powered batteries, and a back-up diesel generator.

A demo of what the AI Captain might see by the University of Birmingham's Human Interface Technologies Team

One of the biggest differences between the Mayflower Autonomous Ship and other boats, is that there are no bedrooms, bathrooms or a kitchen, because there are no crew on board.

Instead, the ship uses an 'AI captain', an artificial intelligence system which uses information from the ship's cameras and sensors to look out for any hazards and tell the ship where to go next.

Similar to a human captain, the AI Captain has spent years in training, looking at more than one million images so it could learn to recognize ships, debris, bridges, pieces of land and other hazards.

Artie is short for Artemis and Artificial Intelligence.

The AI Captain isn't the only robotic stowaway on board the MAS, there is also Artie the octopus!

Artie is a virtual chatbot who is hitching a ride on the ship and helping to answer any questions people might have aboutabout the ship, the ocean, or about himself.

What will it be researching?

The MAS's main mission is to be a floating laboratory for marine scientists to help them research climate change, ocean plastic pollution and marine mammal conservation.

On it's journey the ship will complete three initial research projects, which include measuring sea levels and wave heights, sampling sea water, and listening to whale song.

Research ships are usually expensive and limited by the amount of time people can spend on board them.

By removing the people and creating an AI ship which can collect data and send it back to marine scientists, the makers hope that they will be able to save time and money by allowing researchers to focus on understanding the gathered data, rather than collecting it.

What was the original Mayflower like?

In the Autumn of 1620 a huge 30 metre long wooden ship, called the Mayflower, set sail from Plymouth in the UK on a journey to Cape Cod in the US.

It was carrying 102 passengers, known as the Pilgrims, who wanted to live a life free from the Church of England and start a new life in America.

Despite having triple-mast sails, the wind could only power the ship along at speeds of around 2 knots, and the journey ended up taking around two months to complete.

Named after this famous historical boat, the new Mayflower Autonomous Ship, is hoping to do the journey in two weeks.