For those interested in this sort of stuff have a look at YouTube channel rctestflight - very cool diy projects. Less ML and more solar powered waypoints but still found it insightful on the unique challenge water provides
This is an interesting article but it needs a big disclaimer.
They are designing a self-driving boat without using sonars not radars due to their budget. It's fun but of little relevance to the real world. Most of their problems would be solved or at least heavily alleviated with access to the relevant sensors.
Still, that's quite impressive for a college project built on a shoe string.
From a practical sense though, wouldn’t the staffing costs pale in significance to the other costs of running a large vessel?
there is a dutch startup called roboat thats working on autonomous boats for transportation of humans. Eventually we will also have autonomous Cargo ships
hmmm..stuff still happens on inland waterways...bad stuff...sometimes the gales of november come early
Railways outcompeted canals for shipping, and then road trucks outcompeted railways.
Controlling the boat near the dock is probably more difficult than cars or air planes since swells/waves/winds can move the boat relative to the dock. The robot needs to read the water and wind to protect the boat from collisions.
As taxis, docking/taking on passengers is tricky since it needs to handle situations when people cling onto rails and risk getting stuck between the boat and the dock.