Artificial intelligence on board a yacht tomorrow!

Innovation for every home and every boat

The American CES exhibition is a place where hundreds of new technology products are presented annually. In 2024, one of the leading topics of the exhibition was artificial intelligence and its use in everyday tasks. 

Today, every serious company implements AI in its new products. Among the pioneers of using AI in yachting, I would like to note such companies as Brunswick, Akasus, Avikus and Aquasport. These companies are among the first to try to use the latest technologies from the field of computer science in products available to the mass consumer.

Thus, back in 2022, Brunswick showed a prototype of a boat capable of mooring itself. Following this, Avikus presented its “smart mooring” system Neuboat. At CES 2024, Avikus announced its collaboration with a number of companies involved in commercial yachting. There are plans to create a fully autonomous yacht for pleasure voyages, which will be able not only to moor independently, but also to navigate large sections of the route without the help of a skipper. 

As we wrote in our article about Japanese autonomous navigation system, everything is going to the point that AI will soon be used even on small boats. Artificial intelligence is gradually moving from the world of merchant ships into commercial charter, and then will likely appear on small and medium-sized private sailing yachts.

Specific products that use AI

While Avikus is just about to make its own autonomous boat, Brunswick already has stable results in the field of automation. At CES 2024, Brunswick subsidiary Boston Whaler introduced a mooring system for its 405 Conquest boat. The system uses an array of cameras and a yacht control unit that controls Mercury Marine V12 outboard engines. 

In addition to Brunswick, Volvo Penta was also noted. For the second year in a row, Volvo Penta is piloting artificial intelligence programs to help train sailors. In addition, the company is working on automating various processes on board the yacht, which will make life easier for yachtsmen. AI is also successfully used as the basis for the software part of the company's latest electric motor models. 

Another AI tool from Volvo Penta is the Assisted Docking system. While Neuboat uses external components to assist in docking, Assisted Docking integrates into the boat's electronic navigation system. The boat is still controlled by the skipper, but Assisted Docking “steers” so that the yacht moves strictly in the direction specified by the skipper.

What's next? 

It's worth keeping a close eye on what's new in AI, even if you don't consider yourself an expert. In the coming years, we will see, if not a boom, then increased attention to artificial intelligence technologies in yachting. This will entail new products and new solutions that can qualitatively improve the yachting experience.

At the moment, the industry is just taking a closer look at AI and is not using all the opportunities that the “machine brain” already provides us. From a safety point of view, this is the right approach, because the use of new systems is sometimes not regulated by maritime law at all. It is likely that some of the developments that large companies are trying to promote today may at some point be considered unsafe. 

However, such decisions by international maritime commissions are unlikely to stop the widespread use of AI in yachting and shipping in the coming years. In the near future, we can expect even more interesting and unusual projects that will use the latest technologies. Our task, as real sailors, is to follow and study new products. After all, who knows what new fashion feature will become the industry standard tomorrow?

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03.02.2024