Soon it will be possible to take a ride on the canals of Amsterdam in a robot boat – it is already being tested

In the near future an unmanned boat with an electric motor will be able to carry passengers or deliver goods along Amsterdam’s canals. There is also a modification that will collect household waste.

The vehicle is called Roboat. The project was developed by Amsterdam’s Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Robolotka will help the city solve the transportation problem: traffic jams are constantly created in the narrow streets of the city, and the situation is complicated by the development of e-commerce and delivery.

They have been working on the project for four years, and only recently two full-size boats have been unveiled. One of the first practical applications of Roboat will be garbage collection. Normally, this task is solved by using trucks, but large machines are inconvenient to use in the narrow streets of Amsterdam.
The floating works standing by the shore will be able to be used as garbage containers, which will return independently to the base as they are filled. The city administration supported the idea – the pilot project will start at the beginning of next year.

Technical features of the Roboat

• Roboat will be equipped with a 12 kWh Murata battery, which will provide 8 hours of autonomous work with a voltage of 48 V. If necessary, the battery capacity can be doubled.
• The boat is built in an aluminum hull with dimensions of 2×4 meters and a weight of 1,200 kilograms. Below the waterline, the vehicle is something of an inverted drone: the bow and stern propellers plus two thrusters allow the boat to maneuver easily and anchor more accurately than a human.
• Navigation is provided by a forward-mounted lidar, several cameras and a GPS module. Permission to carry passengers has not yet been obtained, but it is planned for the future.

According to the developers, Roboat will be used for different purposes. The boat can become a floating stage, a temporary bridge or a barge, because it is possible to connect boats with each other. And in the maritime version, several of these machines could, for example, cordon off an oil slick after a spill to contain it.