Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have completed work on the second generation of the automatic robot boat, called the Roboat II. It was developed as part of an order from the Amsterdam authorities, which required a fleet of small autonomous multipurpose watercraft. With their help, the Netherlands wants to make more efficient use of the numerous canals that can be turned into busy waterways.
The second reason for the development of Roboat II is that everyone needs such robo-boats, since this niche is not filled in any way. Instead of dispatching a rowboat or jet ski courier, it is much more profitable to entrust the delivery of the cargo to a small floating robot. A flotilla of such robots in the coastal zone or cities with numerous channels, such as Venice or St. Petersburg, is able to speed up the transportation of numerous goods at minimal cost, because the robots always choose the best route.
Roboat II not only independently orients itself on the terrain and can move along the beacons, but it is also capable of self-organizing the operation of several devices. The head robot can assemble and lead a caravan of other boats, and, if necessary, several vessels dock into a single cargo platform for transporting oversized cargo. The Roboat II's own carrying capacity is small and is about the weight of two people, but the fleet of such boats has much wider possibilities.
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