The Drones are here and ignoring regs

[SV THIRD DAY]

Forget the other types of Drones...what happens when they make drones that will sit online all day and post comments on internet chat forums! Do you know how many people that will put out on the streets....OMG....ha ha ah

[dgz3]

It's pointless to rail against technology and change. You'll get run over and left behind every time. And thus far, at least, it's a mighty big ocean out there. It's an interesting intellectual exercise to pontificate about the possibilities of bumping into one. But it's an astronomically small probability. And as lightly constructed as it is? It would probably be a case of, "What was that? Did you feel something?"
And you can bet the military is and has been all over it. Wouldn't surprise me if it was an outgrowth of escaped military tech. I suspect global militaries' number one concern at the moment is China's burgeoning submarine fleet. Nobody can afford to outbuild them, so this is a cheap and effective way to track them.
The benefit to us nautical types is that maybe we will finally get some real and much needed hard data about what is and what is not happening to our oceans and our climate; hopefully, devoid of vested interest corpritocracy driven media spin. There is just no real money available for this. Perhaps because no one wants to know. Maybe we will find out now that any decent sized university can build or buy a fleet of these.
And AIS is already safer and more reliable than radar or live watch eyeballs. Though I don't see any indication that these things have it. Once I tried it, I vowed not to be without it. I'd sooner throw my binoculars overboard than my AIS!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. What if it fails? What if that local fishing boat doesn't have it? What if the computer crashes? What if the alarm doesn't go off? What if the other boat doesn't turn it on? What about the pirates, the battery drain, the false sense of security, the decay of true hairy eyeballed seamanship skills, blah, blah, blah. Rail on Luddites! See what happens. I ain't goin' out without it. Period. You do what you want.
Commercial shipping is already highly automated. Pleasure yachts are already crossing oceans with barely a hand on the wheel. Ford will have a completely autonomous car on the road in less than four years. NO peddles or steering wheel. The trucking industry is automating and can't wait to get rid of those expensive and annoying drivers. Ditto the airlines.
Automated robot shipping is coming. My guess is collision rates will go up. Then go down. Then practically disappear. Everyone will install the necessary hardware. Colregs will adapt. And everyone will be safer in the long run. Then the computers will decide who will turn which way and when.
Then we can all lay in our pneumatically stabilized cutaneous sore preventing bunks, connected by satellite link with our computers chatting away on discussion forums 24/7 while our yachts anchor themselves in exotic ports, our FLIR systems take a look around and send us the pics and we decide if we want to get up or just move on to the next place.
Or maybe we will just launch our own drone sailboats and watch it all on our HD TVs complete with surround sound....

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

Why go after her personally again...the Global cooling thread was closed down due to your personal attacks there...why bring it here? Sheesh...ridiculous...

Ah...but I think we understand better now...some people get a it testy...

Ahh com on Rich...you got no place to plaster your presents?
Remember...we're just having fun.

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

GoneWalkabout popped an eyeball at that lost autonomous surfboard last week.
Very funny stuff.

No doubt she has plenty of un-off-shoring supporters poppin at driverless cars and... wait for it... heavens to mercitroid... driverless trains, trucks, busses with old people on board. A train MUST have a driver to steer it on the rails!

But when she can get a pizza delivered by drone thats a different matter!

Just imagine buying a boat part and screaming into the phone: "Amazon your bloody drone is LATE!



Frank

I'm outraged. My eyeballs are popping and I'm hoping mad. How dare you even think I eat pizza. Do you know how many calories are in a slice. Preposterous and insulting to think I would eat drone delivered pizza. More likely I will use my Lazer guided frequency scrambler to have that calorie delivering autonomous varmant drop out of the sky.

[bvisailing32]

Not sue what the speed of this fast moving water drone is, but it looks very fast. The faster the less maneuverability at high speed. And less time to make a decision before impact.


Many of us are sailors making 4 to 9 kts on a good day. Might be low visibility, or you just don't get a tally on the fast mover until you look around and say.....


" What is that ? " And a bright red torpedo comes crashing into your vessel with a powerful impact, the family, you and the family dog (history).


What does google do...." Oh well, nothing is perfect, back to the drawing board."


We are used to crossing the coast wise ( traffic) shipping lanes in the San Pedro Channel, on Catalina passages, and I automatically construe that no one is STANDING WATCH and those large commercial vessels....ON WATCH, and STANDING WATCH are two different things.


We are standing and on watch, 100% of the time, and no radar, we have what are called eyes, and can figure a collision bearing, and plan on taking the VLCC on his stern.


Erica and I swap out helm watches every hour, the crew person, sits on the cockpit seat, back up against the coach roof bulk head watching aft. Also, looking under the foot of the jib for any possible traffic every once in a while.


No auto pilot, the helms person is alert to navigation, point of sail, sail trim, and traffic ( 360 degrees). What a concept in 2016.


We also plot out our position on the paper chart every hour or course change, and know when we will enter the shipping lanes , cross the separation zone, and clear the shipping lanes. However we still keep watch for the entire passage.


And we understand the advance as well as the tonnage of those VLCC's , making 20 kts or so , and they are not going to be able to stop or avoid a near extremis situation with a small sailing vessel.


This drone looks like it is going to be traveling very fast, and will have a high closure rate speed coming in from any bearing. Trying to out maneuver it, by changing tack, changing course, etc, especially when no human is on board that drone and you do not know or trust what its intentions are.


I would think if the drone was operating in a particular area that the location, dates, and times, maneuvering , mission, would be posted in Notice to Mariners. The Coasties could also put out an alert on VHF 16, and switching to 22A for detailed warnings.


We need to keep all of us human mariners safe while at sea. Not sure how that idea is going to work with fast moving, un manned, and unpredictable water craft sharing the same space on the ocean.














Radar does not always pick up targets of sailing vessels, maybe the motor vessels with a huge panel of eletronic wonder devices would help, but it may be that we all need more information and study as to any dangers that these drones may produce.


Wonder if this super automated sea spear will be as effective with all of its high tec sensors as that Tesla test driver had when we was watching a movie while roaring down the roadway......he and the car ended before the movie did.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by GoingWalkabout

I will use my Lazer guided frequency scrambler to have that calorie delivering autonomous varmant drop out of the sky.

Are they FCC approved?

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by ingrid75

Off shoring?!? Off shore is a verb?

Off shoring has been used as an adjective in accounting and economics. I borrowed it. Sorry for my verb transgression. Perhaps I should be less verbal in future.

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Ahh com on Rich...you got no place to plaster your presents?
Remember...we're just having fun.

Your fun at other people's expense is rightly seen as abuse in others eyes. Pathetic.

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Are they FCC approved?

Definitely not. I have the right to bear Lazer guided frequency scrambling arms.

By the way. All jokes aside. New defensive systems may be needed for these unmanned aquatic missiles. Apart from early warning systems as they approach, a hand held Lazer guided electronics zapper could leave it dead in the water. Intrusion into your safe zone eliminated.

For every action there is an opposite and almost equal reaction. Or as is the case in defense. A totally unequal reaction as that little menace is squatted like a fly.

I can see a whole new industry in tactical defensive and threat elimination devices. Perhaps I should seek a DARPA grant.

[Stumble]

These things are frankly so small I can't see the shipping industry worrying about them at all. They are roughly the size of a Hobie 14 but all carbon fiber. So figure they weigh in at around 200lbs including the ballast and sensors. A freighter wouldn't even notice if they hit one.

Heck I doubt that most cruisers would suffer any actual damage if they hit one. Though it might be a bit frightening.

As I understand it, they are broadcasting and AIS signal, have running lights, and an active radar reflector. Plus are painted bright orange. I just don't see that much risk to them.

And the advantages are massive. They cangetthe same sensors in the same places at a cost of $2,000/day as a crewed ship at $80,000/day.

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

Forget the other types of Drones...what happens when they make drones that will sit online all day and post comments on internet chat forums! Do you know how many people that will put out on the streets....OMG....ha ha ah

Your talking about Bots. Code that does stuff. A close cousin to robots. Like the one a certain politician was accused of being.

[avb3]

I wonder how the IMO, International Convention On Salvage, 1989 might apply?

That and of course COLREGS could lead to some interesting court actions.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

Forget the other types of Drones...what happens when they make drones that will sit online all day and post comments on internet chat forums! Do you know how many people that will put out on the streets....OMG....ha ha ah

Comment-bots will mainly just displace bored liveaboards

When the last floating shipping container has been dealt with, that's when I'd start worrying about collisions with floating drones.

Thinking it through though... IF the drones have minimal collision detection (and they should, for the price), I'd expect that they would be able to alter course or simply luff/backwind their sail and stop on a dime.

[chala]

Originally Posted by Steady Hand

that could move towards an enemy location

Originally Posted by fallingeggs

they will follow it and not let it go.

What a lot of dills.
Ever tried to sail after a submarine? Just good for filling the oceans with more junk, target practice, defeating purpose, souveniring and I suppose they will be marked “ Property of …, please return to owner if found.”

[chala]

Originally Posted by deblen

Yes!!!!
It will deliver right to your saloon table......

The days where dogs learns that drone mean pizza they will start eating drones.