A Navy Ship Sailed to Hawaii and Back With No One on Board

[left-of-center2012]

A 132-foot-long self-driving ship made history by traveling from San Diego to Hawaii's Pearl Harbor and back again without sailors aboard to guide its way. The Sea Hunter, an autonomous trimaran developed for submarine hunting and counter-mine missions, traveled thousands of miles between San Diego and Pearl Harbor last month.

“The recent long-range mission is the first of its kind and demonstrates to the U.S. Navy that autonomy technology is ready to move from the developmental and experimental stages to advanced mission testing," Gerry Fasano, the defense group president at Leidos, said in the release.

Dan Brintzinghoffer, with Leidos' maritime systems division, said the idea isn't to replace ships with vehicles like Sea Hunter, but to free up personnel aboard bigger vessels to take on more complex tasks.

When the Navy christened the Sea Hunter in 2016, officials said it could change the nature of U.S. maritime operations. It uses a suite of navigation tools and automated lookouts that allow it to safely sail near other vessels in any weather or traffic conditions during the day or night.

https://www.military.com/defensetech/2019/02/15/navy-ship-sailed-hawaii-and-back-no-one-board.html

[TomSlick]

1. I've seen this TV Show.

1968 Star Trek episode - a computer runs the Enterprise -- until it doesn't.

[link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Computer|

[Blue_true]

4. Someone who is more computer hardware savvy can correct me.

But for something like a robotic ship or plane, the computer controls are massively parallel, with several legs. ALL would have to fail simultaneously, but then a deadman switch would likely shutdown the ship's propulsion system, making it dead in the water.

[TomSlick]

7. Not a Trekie, huh?

The computer didn't fail, as such. It just decided to destroy an unmanned ship - used live ammo, killing crew on another Star Fleet ship during war games, and then killed a couple of the Enterprise crew who were trying to turn it off. It was a pretty standard story - robots will eventually turn on us.

[Blue_true]

10. When it comes to Star Wars and Star Trek, I am definitely not up to date.

Well any movie as a matter of fact, I remember pieces, but don't have the photographic recollections of some here on DU.

[TomSlick]

14. Live long and proper.

[rickford66]

18. Didn't like or watch Star Trek but isn't it "Live long and prosper" ?

[Maru Kitteh]

22. LOL.

"Live long and proper [sic]" is good advice too!

[TomSlick]

29. Well, yeah.

Too much Romulan ale.

[Volaris]

33. Uh huh. Ask Skynet about the effectiveness of a deadmans switch hahahaha.

[Blue_true]

34. You make a point.

I sort of remember that for Skynet, machines figured out how to prevent activation of the deadman switch. But those machines had not failed as the poster proposed, they were fully operational, just that they then had concluded that they no longer needed humans.

I read a short story where the author discussed the idea of machines taking over the world. That person's conclusion was that machines themselves could never do that because they could never have the capacity to make one connection that very intelligent humans can make. So the writer's argument was that we should worry about the morals of a very small group of hyper trained humans.

[pecosbob]

2. very cool

[msongs]

3. so how can unmanned ships not get in crashes and manned ones can nt

[Blue_true]

5. A couple of ex Navy posters explained why ships may collide.

I found it to be a pretty interesting read. It was not incompetence, ships often have to go through high risk procedures when being refueled and resupplied at sea. Maybe robotic ships will be better, they must have very sophisticated sensors all over them to tell them where they are, technically two that are near other can monitor minute movement by the other and know when a collision redline is being crossed, then both ships instaneously make corrections to avoid a collision.

[Hekate]

9. I believe that one if the biggest risk factors was the macho insistence on sleep deprivation...

After awhile a sleep deprived person starts having micro-sleep episodes, and episodes of dream-states or hallucinations.

AFAIR investigations showed that those at the helm at the time of collision were all badly sleep- deprived.

But bottom line it seems to be part of "Navy tradition."

[Blue_true]

11. I didn't know that.

Seems like a preventable state of affairs.

[Hekate]

15. I was shocked, and yes it is mostly preventable. It stuck with me because I have often been ....

...sleep-deprived myself due to sleep disorders. And bad sleep-hygiene, one might say, though the first time I got a good diagnosis the doc pointed out that it's awfully hard for people like me to go to bed at a reasonable hour when we wake up feeling like crap anyway.

No excuse, though, for designing a system where exhaustion is built-in minus reasonable safeguards when in command of deadly equipment.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

13. Smoking pot?

[Hekate]

16. Never have done so, nor do I use sleeping pills. As a college student I did a lot of all-nighters...

...because it was impossible for me to concentrate while roommates were watching tv or yakking and I just had to wait for them to go to bed. I did it all over again when I went to grad school in my late 40's, without benefit of the resilience of youth.

In any case my sleep quality has not been good since -- can't remember when it ever was, past puberty. I used to fall asleep during lectures and at work. I have to be careful about driving.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

19. I didn't mean you,

I took a tour on a cruiser once and the petty officer showing us around said that watch standers that smoked pot while on liberty might get high from the blue lights on the ship at night while standing watch!

[Hekate]

21. Apologies -- I know it was TMI. Blue lights, is it? Maybe they see mermaids, too...

Jeez, did you read that thing about dolphins toking on pufferfish to get high? They'll bat one of those things around for up to half an hour, giggling in Dolphin, and finally floating upside down staring at their own reflection.

The vasty deeps, indeed.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dolphins-seem-to-use-toxic-pufferfish-to-get-high-180948219/

[TeamPooka]

23. puffer, puffer, pass.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

6. I'd like to see them try that in the,

Bermuda Triangle?

[Blue_true]

12. Do you REALLY want a robotic ghost ship prowling around? nt

[yortsed snacilbuper]

20. Especially if it has cruise missiles aboard!

[Blue_true]

25. Yikes!!! nt

[Amishman]

35. Still probably safer than if Trump controlled the missiles

Heck, can we get Robot Ghost Ship for our new Secretary of Defense?

[panader0]

8. When I was a kid

I'd sit on the pali and watch the trans-pacific sailboats come in.
The radio would say which boat was ahead. Very cool.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpacific_Yacht_Race

[Hekate]

17. Very cool! Where on the Pali?

[panader0]

24. Up on Round Top, or Tantalus.

There was a place called the meadows. You had to park at the top of
the road and hike up a bit. Took my first psychedelics there. (Thanks Owsley
Stanley).

[sfwriter]

26. I wonder what an unmanned ship qualifies as in salvage terms?

Just curious.

[Submariner]

27. Russian and Chinese submarines sneaking up on them submerged and sinking them

will probably occur, because the sensors on the surface craft may not detect many submerged threats like submarines shooting homing torpedoes from far astern.

[old guy]

28. Except that it didn't.

An escort vessel put sailors on board periodically to check out systems.

[left-of-center2012]

30. Because it was a test run

[old guy]

31. Test run or not there were still humans on board during the run.

So the round trip was not made without humans on board.

[left-of-center2012]

32. okie dokie