Page 56: of Marine News Magazine (November 2021)

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TOP BOATS 2021

Foss Maritime

RACHAEL ALLEN

A TUG WITH AUTONOMOUS CAPABILITIES

Foss Maritime’s newest vessel is the ? rst U.S.-? ag harbor tions,” said Will Roberts, president, Foss Maritime.

tug to integrate autonomous systems in real-world com- The Rachael Allen has been delivered with the SM300 mercial operations. and supporting hardware fully integrated, but the capabil-

Delivered in June, the newly built 90-ton bollard pull Ra- ity of the technology will be activated in stepped phases chael Allen—the fourth in a series of ASD-90 Z-drive trac- over the course of six to nine months to ensure full vis- tor tugs built at Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, in Freeland, ibility and acceptance from all operational stakeholders.

Wash.—features Sea Machines Robotics’ SM300 autono- “Our work toward integrating the autonomous controls . mous-command and -control system. The system’s capabili- . . continues with our partners at Sea Machines, the U.S. ties include transit autonomy, as well as remote access of the Coast Guard and ABS,” Roberts said. “As a safety enhance- tugboat’s onboard machinery, a feature that allows personnel ment that incorporates new and novel technology, we are to manage and support operations from anywhere on board testing out a tool to support our crews, which comes from the vessel or from shore. Navigation obstacle detection and a system processing digital information to enhance safety avoidance capabilities also come standard. of navigation. We are excited about the tools this system

Tapping into the remote command and control capa- brings to our mariners in their service of our customers. We bilities, Foss will use its existing Fleet Monitoring Center will work closely with regulatory agencies and third-party personnel to monitor the tugboat’s systems and operating auditors to thoroughly vet the system as we continue to domain via streaming video and sensor data. According to move toward full operational use of the SM300 on board.”

Foss and Sea Machines, the system enables an extra set of Michael G. Johnson, Sea Machines founder and CEO, eyes and hands to have access to vessel command and con- said, “While our space has seen a number of government-in- trol, allowing Foss and the Rachael Allen crew to maximize novation backed prototype initiatives for autonomous tugs in productive time, safety and crew welfare Europe, Japan and Singapore, it’s notable that Foss is launch- “While we are not working on a fully autonomous tug, ing the ? rst commercially funded project in U.S. waters.

[the Sea Machines systems] allow our crews to use autono- “Our technology has been in use aboard commercial ves- mous features to make their jobs safer. Our mariners are sels around the world for nearly three years and is backed up the key to our success, and we believe the Sea Machines by thousands of hours of testing and validation. This is yet products will help them carry out their day to day opera- another real-world example of how Sea Machines autono- 56 | MN November 2021