Parcel delivery by “roboat”?
Just as we are all coming to terms with the prospect of driverless cars and delivery vans, a new kind of autonomous city vehicle has appeared on the radar – the “roboat”. The ‘roboat’ project — which is collaborative research project between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS) — aims to “design and test the world’s first fleet of autonomous boats in the city of Amsterdam”.
MIT and AMS envisage a range of applications for the roboat. These include monitoring the waters of Amsterdam’s canals for environmental purposes and creating temporary floating infrastructures, such as self-assembling bridges and concert stages, and also “transporting goods”. Indeed, the project webpage on the MIT website includes a picture (presumably mocked-up) of a roboat loaded with parcels.
“With over 1,000 kilometers of canals, 1,500 bridges and a long-standing focus on urban innovation, the city of Amsterdam is an ideal place to test new, water-based mobility solutions,” according to MIT and AMS.
MIT and AMS announced the Roboat project earlier this month. The five-year project reportedly has €25m in funding.
The first roboats are scheduled to appear on Amsterdam’s canals in 2017.
(The name “roboat” is also used by a company which has developed a robotic sailing boat. The two projects are not connected.)
