In unstructured urban canals, regulation-aware interactions with other vessels are essential for collision avoidance and social compliance. In this paper, we propose a regulations aware motion planning framework for Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASVs) that accounts for dynamic and static obstacles. Our method builds upon local model predictive contouring control (LMPCC) to generate motion plans satisfying kino-dynamic and collision constraints in real-time while including regulation awareness. To incorporate regulations in the planning stage, we propose a cost function encouraging compliance with rules describing interactions with other vessels similar to COLlision avoidance REGulations at sea (COLREGs). These regulations are essential to make an ASV behave in a predictable and socially compliant manner with regard to other vessels. We compare the framework against baseline methods and show more effective regulation-compliance avoidance of moving obstacles with our motion planner. Additionally, we present experimental results in an outdoor environment

MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) is ready to deploy the autonomous passenger boat it's been developing over the past six years. The vehicle, called the Roboat, has been through multiple iterations -- just last year, the lab tested a version that can carry two passengers. This year, Roboat's creators are launching its full-scale version, which can carry up to five passengers, collect waste and deliver goods, in Amsterdam. The current Roboat has futuristic looks with its black and grey design and two seats facing each other. It's fully electric with 10 hours of battery life on a single charge and has wireless charging capabilities. MIT CSAIL Director Daniela Rus says it's more precise and has more robust perception, navigation and control systems that its predecessors.

An autonomous boat taxi, years in the making, has now made it to the waterways of Amsterdam. Transportation is about to get a technology-driven reboot. The details are still taking shape, but future transport systems will certainly be connected, data-driven and highly automated. The self-driving boat, dubbed Roboat III, is the creation of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), the Senseable City Laboratory, and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions. First developed and tested in pool environments back in 2015, Roboat has undergone extensive redesigns to become a full-scale, autonomous'taxi' service for city residents.

AMSTERDAM, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Visitors to Amsterdam may soon spot a self-driving watercraft the size of a small car cruising silently through its ancient canals, ferrying passengers or transporting goods or trash. It will be the electric-powered "Roboat", a catchier name than "autonomous floating vehicle" for a project shortly due to start test journeys aimed at improving the crowded city's transport options. "We have a lot of road traffic and congestion, e-commerce, logistics cluttering the small streets in the city," said Stephan van Dijk, Innovation Director at Amsterdam's Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions, which is designing and engineering Roboat with The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). "At the same time we have a lot of open water available in the canals ... So we developed a self-driving, autonomous ship to help with logistics in the city and also bringing people around." One of the first test applications of the craft will be for an unglamorous but important task: trash collection.

If you don't get seasick, an autonomous boat might be the right mode of transportation for you. Scientists from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Senseable City Laboratory, together with Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute) in the Netherlands, have now created the final project in their self-navigating trilogy: a full-scale, fully autonomous robotic boat that's ready to be deployed along the canals of Amsterdam. "Roboat" has come a long way since the team first started prototyping small vessels in the MIT pool in late 2015. Last year, the team released their half-scale, medium model that was 2 meters long and demonstrated promising navigational prowess. This year, two full-scale Roboats were launched, proving more than just proof-of-concept: these craft can comfortably carry up to five people, collect waste, deliver goods, and provide on-demand infrastructure.

MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) is ready to deploy the autonomous passenger boat it's been developing over the past six years. The vehicle, called the Roboat, has been through multiple iterations -- just last year, the lab tested a version that can carry two passengers. This year, Roboat's creators are launching its full-scale version, which can carry up to five passengers, collect waste and deliver goods, in Amsterdam. The current Roboat has futuristic looks with its black and grey design and two seats facing each other. It's fully electric with 10 hours of battery life on a single charge and has wireless charging capabilities. MIT CSAIL Director Daniela Rus says it's more precise and has more robust perception, navigation and control systems that its predecessors.

AMSTERDAM: Electric cars, meet your competition. Electric boats are on the way. Amsterdam didn't have to look very far when searching for a way to ease traffic on its congested streets. The Dutch capital's canals were used for transport long before cars and trucks powered by polluting internal combustion engines began clogging its narrow roads. Already steeped in maritime history, the city's more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) of waterways are to start hosting prototypes of futuristic boats - small, fully-autonomous electric vessels - to carry out tasks including transporting passengers and picking up garbage.

We've heard plenty about the potential of autonomous vehicles in recent years, but MIT is thinking about different forms of self-driving transportation. For the last five years, MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Senseable City Lab have been working on a fleet of autonomous boats to deploy in Amsterdam. Last year, we saw the autonomous "roboats" that could assemble themselves into a series of floating structures for various uses, and today CSAIL is unveiling the "Roboat II." What makes this one particularly notable is that it's the first that can carry passengers. The boat is pretty small, only two meters long, and can carry two passengers through the canals of Amsterdam.

Need to bridge a wide pond or canal in a pinch, or perhaps a backyard pool? Robots pioneered by researchers at MIT and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute) might fit the bill. Dubbed robotic boats, or roboats, they're autonomous platforms designed to "shapeshift" at will by reassembling into different configurations. As MIT's Rob Matheson explains in a blog post, the roboats -- rectangular hulls packing sensors, thrusters, microcontrollers, GPS modules, cameras, and other hardware -- are the fruit of the ongoing Roboat joint project between MIT and the AMS Institute. Its longstanding goal is to create structures capable of ferrying goods and people along Amsterdam's over 160 canals, and of self-assembling into bridges that could help reduce pedestrian congestion.

MIT's fleet of robotic boats has been updated with new capabilities to "shapeshift," by autonomously disconnecting and reassembling into a variety of configurations, to form floating structures in Amsterdam's many canals. The autonomous boats -- rectangular hulls equipped with sensors, thrusters, microcontrollers, GPS modules, cameras, and other hardware -- are being developed as part of the ongoing "Roboat" project between MIT and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute). The project is led by MIT professors Carlo Ratti, Daniela Rus, Dennis Frenchman, and Andrew Whittle. In the future, Amsterdam wants the roboats to cruise its 165 winding canals, transporting goods and people, collecting trash, or self-assembling into "pop-up" platforms -- such as bridges and stages -- to help relieve congestion on the city's busy streets. In 2016, MIT researchers tested a roboat prototype that could move forward, backward, and laterally along a preprogrammed path in the canals.