Boaters on the Great Lakes this year may notice some unusual structures in the water that aren’t buoys and aren’t boats: they’re “sail drones.”
The U.S. Coast Guard’s Great Lakes District on Tuesday announced the use of autonomous drones starting this month on the Great Lakes. It said the so-called “sail drones” will help support its missions on the lakes from May to October.
The unmanned vessels are powered by both wind and solar energy. The Coast Guard said it will use them to monitor for illegal activity and to gather weather data to help coordinate emergency response.
“In short, these autonomous systems augment the essential needs of qualified Coast Guard crews operating on the Great Lakes,” the agency said in an online post on the U.S. Department of War website.
The Coast Guard said the drones are highly visible and outfitted with radar, cameras and an artificial intelligence system designed to help avoid collisions with other crafts. They will be fully monitored by “human operators who can take manual control if needed,” the agency said.
“Sail drones are equipped with sensors focused solely on maritime domain awareness, providing critical information on vessel activities, including vessels in distress or engaged in illegal operations,” the post states.
The agency did not say how many of the drones would be deployed.
The vehicle being used is known as the Saildrone Voyager, according to DroneXL, a website dedicated to drone-related news. Saildrone, a California-based company, produces autonomous wind- and solar-powered aqueous drones that collect data and surveillance information.
The Voyager is a 10-meter vessel “designed for persistent coastal surveillance and nearshore mapping missions,” according to the company website. It can run for 100 days without being serviced by a human.
Last year, the U.S. Navy reported that it used 20 Voyagers in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean to curb the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S.
The Great Lakes project is paid for by a contract awarded by the Coast Guard to its Great Lakes District.
mreinhart@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Coast Guard to deploy drones on the Great Lakes
Reporting by Max Reinhart, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
