I had previously proposed a modern day Silkroad connecting the two ends of Eurasia over the air on my article “The World Autonomous Air Cargo Way”. I would like to extend this idea for the autonomous freighters and container ships.
Electrically operating autonomous ships can be a future for the global sea transportation. The built-in batteries do not need thousands of kilometers of range. A network of floating offshore vertical wind turbines would extend the ships range. These turbines would be placed on critical locations on the sea routes. The wind farms would have batteries under the turbine towers to allow speed charging of the ships even at low wind speeds. The weight of the batteries would also improve their stability.
When an autonomous ship approaches to a wind farm, the power plug which doubles as a mini boat would cruise towards the ship. Then, the boat plug would engage to the ship forming a sealed connection. The floating power cable would allow fast charging of the ship’s batteries. Once the charging is complete, the plug boat would cruise back to the wind turbine and the ship would continue on its route.
The autonomous ships would be piloted by skippers when they approach or leave a harbor. Later, autonomous ship only harbors would be built for full autonomy.
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