Floating Bridges of Autonomous Boats
MIT's Roboats Source: MIT Roboat Test World's First Bridge Composed of Autonomous Boats This is the world's first bridge composed of autonomous boats that disconnect and reassemble into various configurations. It's the invention of engineers and other scientists at MIT and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions. The city of Amsterdam has big plans for them in their canals to reduce busy traffic on congested city streets. Amsterdam Deployment Amsterdam wants the roboats to cruise its 165 canals to transport people and goods, collect trash and self-assemble into popup platforms like bridges and stages as needed. The roboats are equipped with sensors, thrusters, GPS modules, cameras, microcontrollers and other hardware. They are far less expensive and far more versatile than traditional bridges. New Algorithm Upgrade The roboats have just been upgraded with a new control algorithm that enables them to be "shapeshifting", auto...