SCOUT TRANSATLANTIC AUTONOMOUS ROBOT BOAT RECORD ATTEMPT 45 DAYS 2013

Following on from the Scout Atlantic bash in 2013, in 2020, a team comprising Promare, IBM, and many other technology partners, decided to attempt to cross the Atlantic against the prevailing winds and currents. They set out to build a 100ft craft named Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) for launch and an attempt, aiming for the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrim Fathers journey starting on the 6th of September 1620.

They never made that date, partly due to Covid 19, but did manage to get a hull in the water for the ceremonies in Plymouth, Devon in 2020. On the 15th June 2021, the unmanned craft departed from Plymouth in England, aiming for Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA. You can follow the journey on their blog: https://mas400.com/dashboard

MAS 400 - The fully autonomous trimaran Setting off from Plymouth, England on the 15th June 2021. There are solar panels, that presumably add to the diesel-electric setup. The idea is to be COLREGs compliant with a self learning program, as such vessels build a database. Much the same as with the current bevy of self-driving robotaxis and robotracks. The question is therefore, will ships beat trucks to the autonomous punch?

SCOUT 45th DAY UPDATE - Scout is really moving now as the robust vessel heads for her 45 day rendezvous. She has completed over 125 miles in the last four days after a massive course deviation (correction) to meet a waypoint, and that was after a significant northerly course deviation in the previous 8 days, making all of us nervous to say the least. She is back heading east. Progress is varied as you might expect from such an event, but, with the velocity reaching 1.9 miles an hour for a time and an average speed fluctuating from 1.64 mph to 1.54mph, this is an exciting ride. The speedometer is not functioning, showing zero velocity - but don't let that fool you. The Atlantic mid-hump is coming up. It's nerve racking stuff for sure, we suspect that this is so especially for the team. Hang in there Scouts! Click on the picture below to continue the story.

CONCEPT - Scout is powered by solar panels. The idea is to get across the Atlantic autonomously meaning without stopping for fuel and without a human onboard to steer. The boat is thus an ocean going robot. The Scout team are using much the same gps, tracking and computer equipment as the Microtransat teams seem to favour. Some roboteers have even designed an "autonomous" motherboard, onto which all the usual guidance and comms are incorporated. See Jon's ASV board as used with the Mbed for his 4x4 car. With robot engineers around the world collaborating, obstacles like the Atlantic will soon be surpassed. Then comes other oceans, the Indian and Pacific - and eventually, a world autonomous navigation. Such an endeavor will require a special boat. We advocate that a small ship is more suited. Time will tell.

Time Elapsed: 45 DAYS: 02 HOURS: 55 MINUTES: 07 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 1277.31 MI Distance to Spain 2166 MI

Distance traveled by Scout 1708.01 MI Velocity not displaying

CURRENT STATUS: N 40° 57’ 14.5” W 46° 34’ 53.38” Compass 0° Waypoint 0° CoG 132°

Time Elapsed: 44 DAYS: 05 HOURS: 04 MINUTES: 19 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 1262.42 MI Distance to Spain 2178 MI
Distance traveled by Scout 1690.26 Velocity (not displaying)

CURRENT STATUS: N 41° 7’ 37.27” W 46° 49’ 57.57” Compass 0° Waypoint 0° CoG 80°

Time Elapsed: 43 DAYS: 05 HOURS: 26 MINUTES: 38 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 1209.62 MI Distance to Spain 2234 MI

CURRENT STATUS: N 40° 58’ 21.16” W 47° 53’ 28.27” Compass 0° Waypoint 0° CoG 114°

Time Elapsed:42 DAYS: 06 HOURS: 10 MINUTES: 21 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 1152.12 mi Distance to Spain 2283 mi
Distance traveled by Scout 1570.26 mi Velocity - not recording

CURRENT STATUS: N 41° 27’ 43.8” W 48° 54’ 43.32” Compass 0° Waypoint 0° CoG 104°

Time Elapsed: 41 DAYS: 07 HOURS: 40 MINUTES: 22 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 1127.84 mi Distance to Spain 2306 mi
Distance traveled by Scout 1545.78 mi Velocity 0 mi hr

CURRENT STATUS: N 41° 33’ 1.52” W 49° 22’ 10.4” Compass 0° Waypoint 0° CoG 109°

Time Elapsed: 40 DAYS: 03 HOURS: 53 MINUTES: 14 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 1082.53 mi Distance to Spain 2351 mi
Distance traveled by Scout 1496.99 mi Velocity 0 mi hr

CURRENT STATUS: N 41° 34’ 47.08” W 50° 14’ 47.2” Compass 0° Waypoint 0° CoG 77°

ELEKTOR - A team of young DIYers from Tiverton, RI in the US have built the Scout to attempt the first autonomous Transatlantic crossing by a surface craft. Power for the 12 ft boat comes from four 30 W solar panels built into the deck, charging a lithium-iron-phosphate battery. One of the two Arduino Mega boards used in the design handles navigation while the second Mega takes care of sensor data and communications via an Iridium satellite transceiver.

Failsafe measures built into the design include a hard reset of the Arduinos every 12 hr to recover from any power supply brown out event or memory malfunction. The boat’s course is set by navigating to preprogrammed GPS waypoints. It periodically performs a reverse maneuver to clear seaweed or debris which may have fouled the propeller.

You can check Scouts progress on the team’s web page (click on the picture above), the last time I looked it was 37 days into the mission and 1010 miles from Rhode Island. If all goes to plan it will make landfall at Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain, the place where Columbus began his second journey to the New World.

Author - MC

Time Elapsed: 39 DAYS: 07 HOURS: 07 MINUTES: 41 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 1010.28 mi Distance to Spain 2410 mi
Distance traveled by Scout 1367.53 mi Velocity 2.5 mi hr

CURRENT STATUS N 42° 37’ 23.52” W 51° 33’ 2.59”
Compass 100° Waypoint 100° CoG 143°

Time Elapsed: 38 DAYS: 04 HOURS: 23 MINUTES: 06 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 1010.28 MI Distance to Spain 2410 MI

Distance traveled by Scout 1368.42 Velocity 2.5 MI HR

CURRENT STATUS: N 42° 37’ 23.52” W 51° 33’ 2.59” Compass 100° Waypoint 100° CoG 143°

Time Elapsed: 37 DAYS: 04 HOURS: 49 MINUTES: 42 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 1010.28 MI Distance to Spain 2410 MI
Distance traveled by Scout 1376.72 Velocity 2.5 MI HR

CURRENT STATUS: N 42° 37’ 23.52” W 51° 33’ 2.59” Compass 100° Waypoint 100° CoG 143°

Time Elapsed: 36 DAYS: 04 HOURS: 40 MINUTES: 50 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 1010.28 MI Distance to Spain 2410 MI

CURRENT STATUS N 42° 37’ 23.52” W 51° 33’ 2.59” Compass 100° Waypoint 100° CoG 143°

Time Elapsed: 35 DAYS: 01 HOURS: 10 MINUTES: 27 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 1007.52 MI Distance to Spain 2411 MI

Distance traveled by Scout 1370.88 Velocity 1.8 MI HR

CURRENT STATUS: N 42° 48’ 0.79” W 51° 35’ 51.54” Compass 105° Waypoint 101° CoG 191°

Time Elapsed: 34 DAYS: 06 HOURS: 22 MINUTES: 12 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 970.97 mi Distance to Spain 2444 mi
Distance traveled by Scout 1317.8 mi Velocity 4.9 mi hr

CURRENT STATUS: N 43° 11’ 21.62” W 52° 18’ 58.61” Compass 94° Waypoint 101° CoG 102°

Time Elapsed: 33 DAYS: 03 HOURS: 10 MINUTES: 17 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 961.58 mi Distance to Spain 2454 mi
Distance traveled by Scout 1305.95 mi Velocity 0.9 mi hr

CURRENT STATUS: N 43° 5’ 20.8” W 52° 30’ 3.57” Compass 0° Waypoint 101° CoG 318°

Time Elapsed: 32 DAYS: 03 HOURS: 29 MINUTES: 39 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 937.09 MI Distance to Spain 2478 MI

Distance traveled by Scout 1270.87 Velocity 1.9 MI HR

CURRENT STATUS: N 43° 7’ 42.21” W 52° 59’ 11.18” Compass 72° Waypoint 101° CoG 123°

Time Elapsed: 31 DAYS: 01 HOURS: 25 MINUTES: 52 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 906.28 MI Distance to Spain 2509 MI

Distance traveled by Scout 1244.34 Velocity 1.7 MI HR

CURRENT STATUS: N 43° 6’ 43.78” W 53° 35’ 46.5” Compass 108° Waypoint 101° CoG 98°

Time Elapsed: 30 DAYS: 14 HOURS: 26 MINUTES: 34 SECONDS
Distance from Rhode Island 897.35 MI Distance to Spain 2518 MI

Distance traveled by Scout 1234.83 Velocity 3.3 MI HR

CURRENT STATUS: N 43° 5’ 3.13” W 53° 46’ 20.35” Compass 15° Waypoint 101° CoG 32°


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The sequence of construction of a boat is often just as interesting as what it achieves during its operational lifetime. The care and attention to detail on Scout is impressive - not least because the team are students, not yet at university level.

LIVE COVERAGE - Watch a WPI student set a world record live on the internet. Scout, a record-setting autonomous boat, was built by Dylan Rodriguez, 14, and a team of talented friends, as they attempt to make the first successful transatlantic crossing by an unmanned vessel.

Scout has shattered the previous record of 60 miles set by a team from Aberystwyth University in 2010.

“It’s been a pretty cool experience thus far,” says Rodriguez, a native of Rhode Island, who is back on the WPI campus for the start of A-Term. “But we’ve got a long way to go. The goal is to reach Spain.”

The idea started when Rodriguez’s good friend Max Kramers attended a school in Spain and both lamented how difficult it was to stay in touch across the Atlantic. “We were joking about sending messages in a bottle when the idea hit us.”

Rodriguez and Kramers got to work, and quickly added lifelong friends Dan and Mike Flanigan, Brendan Prior, David Pimental, and Ryan Mueller ’13 to the project. “We all grew up together in Rhode Island, except for Ryan, who I met here at WPI” says Rodriquez.

Scout is not Rodriguez’s MQP project. Nor is it officially affiliated with any university, as team members attend different schools, (Bucknell, Notre Dame, WPI, Northeastern, and Endicott). The team first found funding through online funding site Kickstarter that brought in $3,000. That provided the encouragement to land Jamestown Distributors as a sponsor. Jamestown, a local family-owned marine and building supply company based in Bristol, RI, was key to the project, says Rodriguez. “Landing a sponsor like Jamestown that knows boats was very helpful.” Other funding came via Scout’s Facebook page.

In all, the team spent $6,000 building the 13 foot boat, using many off-the-shelf components. A micro-controller handles navigation while another handles sensors and communications via a small satellite transceiver. Pre-programmed, Scout relies on sensors to handle the changing conditions of the Atlantic ocean. The boat is powered by solar panels that were laminated straight onto the deck, which is tilted south for maximum sun exposure. Scout also sleeps every so often to both rest and recharge itself.

Rodriguez, who did his IQP on the viability of autonomous boats, says Scout has commercial possibilities. The boat’s sensors record various ocean data, ranging from salinity to barometric pressure. “During an oil spill, for instance, an autonomous vessel could be used to track it in real time, as opposed to satellite images, which have limitations.” Ocean data now appears on the Scout tracking site in real time. Asked if he thinks Scout will ever be used to keep overseas friends in better contact, Rodriguez gives a laugh. “I’m not sure if that’s a viable commercial use, but Scout certainly brought our team closer together.”

Next stop for this talented team of college students? Spain and the potential for some serious history making.

The Spirit of St. Louis (Registration: N-X-211) is the custom-built, single engine, single-seat monoplane that was flown solo by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris for which Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize. Lindbergh took off in the Spirit from Roosevelt Airfield, Garden City (Long Island), New York and landed 33 hours, 30 minutes later at Aéroport Le Bourget in Paris, France, a distance of approximately 3,600 miles (5,800 km). One of the best known aircraft in the world, the Spirit was built by Ryan Airlines in San Diego, California, which at the time was owned and operated by Benjamin Franklin Mahoney who had purchased it from its founder, T. Claude Ryan, in 1926. The pictures above show Charles Lindberg with his steed, James Stewart in a Hollywood movie by the same name, and a model, revealing the giant fuel tank, behind which the aviator sat, unable to see ahead.

http://www.solarracing.org/2013/06/10/autonomous-solar-powered-boat-to-cross-the-atlantic/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/601285608/scout-the-autonomous-transatlantic-boat