Feed: Slashdot
Feed Link: https://slashdot.org/
---

Title: Denmark Tests Unmanned Robotic Sailboat Fleet

Link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/06/17/0182...

Denmark has deployed four uncrewed robotic sailboats (known as "Voyagers"
for a three-month trial to boost maritime surveillance amid rising tensions
in the Baltic region. The Associated Press reports: Built by Alameda,
California-based company Saildrone, the vessels will patrol Danish and NATO
waters in the Baltic and North Seas, where maritime tensions and suspected
sabotage have escalated sharply since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine
on Feb. 24, 2022. Two of the Voyagers launched Monday from Koge Marina, about
40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Powered by
wind and solar energy, these sea drones can operate autonomously for months
at sea. Saildrone says the vessels carry advanced sensor suites -- radar,
infrared and optical cameras, sonar and acoustic monitoring. Their launch
comes after two others already joined a NATO patrol on June 6. Saildrone
founder and CEO Richard Jenkins compared the vessels to a "truck" that
carries sensors and uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to give
a "full picture of what's above and below the surface" to about 20 to 30
miles (30 to 50 kilometers) in the open ocean. He said that maritime threats
like damage to undersea cables, illegal fishing and the smuggling of people,
weapons and drugs are going undetected simply because "no one's observing
it." Saildrone, he said, is "going to places ... where we previously didn't
have eyes and ears." The Danish Defense Ministry says the trial is aimed at
boosting surveillance capacity in under-monitored waters, especially around
critical undersea infrastructure such as fiber-optic cables and power lines.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

---
VRSS v2.1.180528