Vehicle that operates on the surface of the water without a crew
In February 2022, the Japanese passenger ferry Sunflower Shiretoko sailed autonomously for 750 kilometers.[ 1]
British RNMB Harrier , an autonomous USV of the Atlas Elektronik ARCIMS mine warfare system (2020)
A passenger USV demonstration at Hampton, Virginia , United States (January 2009)
An unmanned surface vehicle , unmanned surface vessel or uncrewed surface vessel (USV),[ 2] [ 3] colloquially called a drone boat , drone ship [ 4] or sea drone, is a boat or ship that operates on the surface of the water without a crew.[ 5] USVs operate with various levels of autonomy, from remote control [ 6] to fully autonomous surface vehicles (ASV).[ 7]
^ "MOL and Partners Set World Records for Time and Distance in Autonomous Navigation with Sea Trial Using Large Commercial Car Ferry - Follows Successful Trial of Coastal Containership in Autonomous Sailing -" . Mitsui O.S.K. Lines . Archived from the original on 2022-02-08. Retrieved 2022-02-10 .
^ "Uncrewed Surface Vessel Research and Development Program at the NOAA – UNH Joint Hydrographic Center/Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping" (PDF) . Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-01-22. Retrieved 2021-07-14 .
^ Patterson, Ruth G.; Lawson, Emily; Udyawer, Vinay; Brassington, Gary B.; Groom, Rachel A.; Campbell, Hamish A. (2022). "Uncrewed Surface Vessel Technological Diffusion Depends on Cross-Sectoral Investment in Open-Ocean Archetypes: A Systematic Review of USV Applications and Drivers" . Frontiers in Marine Science . 8 . doi :10.3389/fmars.2021.736984 . ISSN 2296-7745 .
^ Mizokami, Kyle (15 January 2019). "The U.S. Navy's Big Push Into Drone Ships Will Lead to Unmanned Vessels Carrying Weapons" . Popular Mechanics . Archived from the original on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2020 .
^ Yan, Ru-jian; Pang, Shuo; Sun, Han-bing; Pang, Yong-jie (2010). "Development and missions of unmanned surface vehicle". Journal of Marine Science and Application . 9 (4): 451–457. Bibcode :2010JMSA....9..451Y . doi :10.1007/s11804-010-1033-2 . S2CID 109174151 .
^ "SM200 Wireless Remote-Helm Control System" . Sea Machines. 11 December 2020. Archived from the original on 14 July 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2021 .
^ Niu, Hanlin; Lu, Yu; Savvaris, Al; Tsourdos, Antonios (2018). "An energy-efficient path planning algorithm for unmanned surface vehicles" . Ocean Engineering . 161 : 308–321. Bibcode :2018OcEng.161..308N . doi :10.1016/j.oceaneng.2018.01.025 . hdl :1826/13249 . S2CID 115280769 . Archived from the original on 2022-06-15. Retrieved 2021-10-19 .