Most of our current discussions about automated vehicle driving revolve around cars, which makes sense, as those are the types of vehicles that we tend to encounter and drive on a routine basis. The world isn’t all paved ground, though, and there’s plenty of other vehicles that are being automated: air travel has had some form of automation since 1912 and on water automated cargo vessels are already here. I recently became aware of another automated watercraft project, the work that Roboat is doing in Amsterdam, and it’s so interesting and clever that I want to tell you all about it. Now.
Water-based vehicles are a good target for automating because the water environment is, generally, a lot more forgiving than automobiles on roads are. The speeds tend to be lower, reaction times tend to be more generous, there’s no pedestrians (I guess maybe some swimmers occasionally), and collisions are generally less severe. This is all even more true in the case of the particular Roboat use cases, which are on canals, using low-speed boats.
The Roboat team consists of an MIT-based group and a group that’s part of the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Studies (AMS), and what they’ve done is develop and build a robotic boat transportation system that’s being tested in Amsterdam’s network of canals.
The boats are electric and can run for about 10 hours on a charge. They carry, in passenger configurations, up to five people or can over 3,000 pounds of cargo. They use lidar to understand and interact with their environment, and can dock autonomously with specially-prepared docks. Here, they made a video that tells you all this:
What I find so appealing about what they’re doing is that this is an example of understanding the current, viable state of automation technology and finding a use case that it can serve extremely well.
Currently, the Amsterdam canal network is mostly used for tourists, but there’s no reason why it couldn’t be used as a viable transport network for the locals. There are water taxi services, but an automated canal transportation system could potentially allow for a lot more traffic and transfer some of the load of transportation from Amsterdam’s roads to its canals.
In keeping with the idea of moving traffic from roads to canals, the Roboat team has also developed a sort of trash-boat, their same Roboat platform but with an alternate upper module that is essentially a floating dumpster, and can autonomously take trash to waste facilities when full, eliminating the need for a good portion of Amsterdam’s garbage trucks on the streets.
There’s also a module for package delivery, which, honestly, seems a little more limited as I’m not sure people will want to go to the banks of a canal to get a package, but who knows how the Dutch like to do things? 
This on-demand bridge application is interesting as well, where an upper module that houses a flat surface could be ganged together with many other similarly-equipped Roboats to make ersatz bridges as needed. I’m not exactly sure about what contexts may need this, but I bet if you’re in such a context, you’ll know it. This also feels like there’d be military applications, since quick bridge-building has come up in many military situations.
I’m not sure what it is about this project that struck me so, other than I really appreciate the simple cleverness of it all. The bi-directional boat design is smart, the engineering seems to be using well-established components in novel ways, and I like the hyper-specificity of the solution to the place. Not many cities are like Amsterdam, with these sorts of canal networks, but in that context, this appears to potentially be a great solution to traffic congestion issues for places that have such canals.
I unironically wish I could commute by dinghy to work (via freshwater). Boating is so much more relaxing than driving.
“where an upper module that houses a flat surface could be ganged together with many other similarly-equipped Roboats to make ersatz bridges as needed. I’m not exactly sure about what contexts may need this, but I bet if you’re in such a context, you’ll know it.”
For when an egotistical billionaire dismantles bridges so that his d***-extension boat (as opposed to his d***-extension rocket) can reach the ocean?
They should put bimini tops on these with solar panels so they can recharge overnight while docked.
/s
I could see this being useful somewhere like Washington D.C.
“I’m not sure what it is about this project that struck me so…”
It’s the name. Roboat is perfect in EVERY way and I’m almost upset about it.
But where are the oars…
As a Puget Sound resident, this seems like a viable option given the consistent construction and traffic on any of the cities toll bridges and roadways.
Can I just park my car in Renton and shuttle across Lake Washington or Elliot bay then catch an Uber or walk into the heart of Seattle?
The ferry system here is extremely problematic if you really want to get into it. All government run with a genuine disregard for practicality.
With a few of these Roboats fortified for high sea travel I could visit my wonderful in-laws in Long Branch on the Key peninsula from Olympia with a phone app and a short scenic jaunt across the water instead of a three hour drive on I5.
Sign me up.
Honestly, in any coastal or river port city with an existing but outdated ferry system this is a brilliant idea.
Make me a Roboat I can drive my car on to. Ferry it across whatever body of water is between my starting point and my destination.
I’ll happily pay for the luxury of fishing for dinner in my early morning commute over sitting in the same old stop and go.
I like it. Having grown up on Whidbey island this would have been quite useful on the south end, just don’t try it into the San Juans without dramatically increasing size. Things get a bit rough up there when the wind starts blowing.
There are gonna be a whole lot more areas with use cases for these boats when you consider sea level rise due to climate change. Starting with Florida. I’m only half joking about this.
would be a viable Miami public transportation.
A viable transport option? Not a chance! There’s a very low speed limit on the canals.As another commenter already said, bicycles are a far quicker option
Tourist boats?Sure.Although i suspect most tourists would prefer a human driver so they can ask questions
I wonder how well the pedestrian detection works. LOL
I just pre-ordered Torchinsky’s new book, “Roboat, Take the Helm”.
I see what you did there, very punny.
“Most of our current discussions…”
“…understanding the current, viable state…”
“Currently, the Amsterdam…”
I don’t get it, water you talking about?
I hope the lidar works well in rain, Amsterdam’s main import.
These would be great as little tourist shuttles. They wouldn’t really be a better way to get around (you can get anywhere in the city in under 15 minutes on bike), but it’d be a great way to tour the city.
I love these also but for tourist transport they would have the same problem as a robo-taxi. Who cleans up the barf?
I think that’s a fair question but will turn out to be an edge case. When I was last in Amsterdam the canals were a meter or two below street level, and therefore out of the wind, and everyone motors along at dead-slow so wakes were tiny.
Don’t think they’re talking about barf from wave-induced nausea, more from tourists being drunk clowns.
And stoned too. Amsterdam has lenient weed laws, so it’s a tourist destination in Europe just for that. There’s going to be a lot of drunk hen and stag dos falling overboard from these things.
More robots?
The boats can temporarily submerge
I love it. It fits. Bet you couldn’t do the same with Venice though, the Italians would have a fit.
“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”
Sometimes, the “nail” actually is a nail?