MIT CSAIL's Roboat II is an autonomous platform large enough to carry human passengers

Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) say they've created an autonomous river vessel -- Roboat II -- that's capable of carrying passengers across fast-moving bodies of water. It's the latest addition to a fleet of autonomous boats developed by CSAIL, MIT Senseable City Lab, and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS) over the last five years. As MIT's Rob Matheson explained in a recent blog post, the Roboats -- rectangular hulls packing sensors, thrusters, microcontrollers, cameras, and other hardware -- emerged from the ongoing project. The goal is to create robot fleets that can ferry people and goods through Amsterdam's 160 canals and self-assemble into bridges to help reduce pedestrian congestion. Roboat II measures 2 meters long (6 feet) and can carry up to six passengers at a time.