SAFE Boats Delivers Survey Vessel for Maritime Autonomy Provider Mythos AI

Bremerton, Wash. shipbuilder SAFE Boats International announced a production partnership with West Palm Beach, Fla.-based autonomous maritime technology provider Mythos AI.  

SAFE Boats has delivered a purpose-built Porter 78S workboat to Mythos AI. The aluminum-hull, outboard-driven Porter 78S survey boat, built under an exclusive license agreement with Stormer Work Boats of the Netherlands, is specifically designed for the integration of Mythos AI’s self-driving and autonomous hydrographic survey control system.

Mythos AI’s first autonomous SAFE Porter 78S hydrographic survey vessel, ArchieOne, is fully equipped and in-service, collecting data and demonstrating its capabilities to hydrographic survey stakeholders in the U.S. southeast. The second vessel is approaching completion and future builds are scheduled for 2023 and beyond.

Mythos AI applies self-driving, car-derived technology to the maritime environment. Archie, Mythos AI’s initial product offering, is a vertically integrated autonomous hydrographic survey vessel. Hydrographic surveys require a specialized skill set and the ability to rapidly interpret various environmental details. They are conducted at low speeds where maintaining course & coverage requirements manually is a challenge while executing dynamic routes to avoid obstacles and collisions in congested waterways. The Mythos system walks operators through the acquisition process of high fidelity, multibeam sonar data from start-to-finish, layering in autonomous quality-control and self-driving to reduce human-prone error and, in turn, increases the efficiency of surveys tenfold.

The Porter 78S is an 8m x 3m aluminum workboat powered by dual outboard engines with a large pilothouse and working deck area inclusive of a moonpool for multibeam sonar deployment. The Porter range of workboats are offered by SAFE Boats in inboard and outboard configurations from 6.5m to 12m.