Amsterdam-based autonomous boat technology company Roboat has raised €550,000 in funding from LUMO Labs and SHIFT Invest.
The company, a spin-out from MIT and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Urban Solutions (AMS), plans to transform urban waterway transportation with fully autonomous boats equipped with situational awareness, decision support, obstacle identification and avoidance, autonomous navigation, and automatic docking and mooring.
The company is developing AI software to navigate the Dutch inland waterways, which are busy, and can be integrated into new vehicles or retrofitted onto commercial vessels tasked with transporting people, delivering goods and collecting waste.
“We are thrilled to be working with Roboat on this exciting new venture,” said Ynse Hendrik Deinema, CEO and co-founder of Roboat.
“We work with several customers in the Netherlands and across Europe where, depending on local regulations, our system supports the captain on the bridge deck or takes full control of the navigation.”
GVB (Gemeente Vervoerbedrijf), the public transport operator in Amsterdam, uses the Roboat system for situational awareness on the GVB IJveer, providing an extra set of eyes supporting the captain.
“LUMO Labs is a pioneer in the design and development of high-performance 3D lasers,” said Andy Lürling, founding partner at LUMO Labs.
“Cities around the world struggle to transport people and goods on congested roads. Water transport is a good alternative to cars and trucks, but manpower shortages and relatively high operating costs currently create bottlenecks.
Roboat’s technology offers a solution based on autonomous navigation.
This market is expected to grow exponentially as transportation systems need to be rethought to make them more versatile and sustainable.”
Main image: Roboat. Photo: Uncredited.
