Tech Talk: The Machine Odyssey Blog

Blog highlight: In a challenging industry like ours, missions go smoothly when you select the right partners and collaborate. Get to know our partners, The Machine Odyssey sponsors, who are providing reliable navigational data, port assistance and green biofuel.

In this Q&A, Sea Machines interviews StormGeo, Blue Water Shipping, and Bunker One, about their decisions to support The Machine Odyssey and how their services support our mission and the next generation of autonomous operations.

To avoid program delays from highly active North Sea weather systems impacting the Danish West Coast this week and next, Sea Machines has altered the completion route of The Machine Odyssey to remain along the Eastern Coast.

No longer transiting the western cities, the modified route has included new stops in Aalborg; Frederecia; and Laboe, Germany; where the vessel will next transit the nearby Kiel Canal to arrive at its final destination in Hamburg on Friday, October 15. The total distance is slated to be 1,020 NM upon arrival in Hamburg, which surpasses the original 1,000 autonomous NM goal of the project.

Autonomous NMs traveled: 500

Vessel location: Laeso, Denmark

Blog highlight: Voyage halfway complete

Marking the halfway point of The Machine Odyssey’s record-setting 1,000 NM autonomous voyage around Denmark, the Nellie Bly arrived in Laeso after a 12-hour transit from Aarhus, Denmark. Along the way, viewers had the chance to watch the milestone moment live from The Machines Odyssey’s dashboard, which streams video and vessel data 24/7 directly from the boat.

Autonomous NMs traveled: 355

Vessel location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Blog highlight: 40 percent of voyage complete, successful local event held 

The Machine Odyssey’s Nellie Bly arrived in Copenhagen to dreary, chilly weather on Oct. 5., but not even the rain could stop the crew’s excitement for having completed nearly 40 percent of the mission safely and successfully. Upon arrival, Sea Machines’ SM300 autonomous system – which has enabled Boston-based mariners to command and control the Nellie Bly from a control room more than 3,600 miles away – had logged 355 NMs travelled and executed 22 collision avoidance maneuvers, as well as provided thousands of virtual onlookers with live camera views and situational awareness data along the way.

Vessel location: Damen Shipyard, Gorinchem, The Netherlands

Blog highlight: Learn about the woman who inspired our crew

Before the newly constructed Nellie Bly ever entered the water, the crew at Sea Machines searched for a vessel name fitting of not only its advanced capabilities but also of the innovative nature of The Machine Odyssey project, which will break records and set a new industry standard for what’s possible at sea. With a clever nod towards Homer’s The Odyssey – which details a challenging, yet successful long journey – the crew considered several options before arriving upon the determinedly fitting vessel name of Nellie Bly.

So, who is Nellie Bly and how did her name become the perfect moniker for Sea Machines’ vessel, which will soon make history?

Vessel location: Damen Shipyard, Gorinchem, The Netherlands 

Blog highlight: Introduction to Machine Odyssey and Sea Machines’ SM300 

The autonomous revolution is taking the 21st century by storm. From our roads to our skies, and now, the biggest frontier of them all – our seas. Sea Machines continues to prove that the world’s waterways are primed and ready for autonomy, which will retool the world’s fleets to operate more safely and seamlessly, and provide our growing global society with greater access to the oceanic 70 percent of the planet.