THE HAGUE: Amsterdam's iconic canals may soon see the world's first driverless boats, doing everything from moving people and goods to providing "pop-up" bridges and cleaning up thousands of dumped bicycles, the project's scientists said.
.. The first prototypes of the so-called "Roboat" will launch next year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS) said.
"Imagine a fleet of autonomous boats for the transportation of goods and people," added MIT professor Carlo Ratti, who heads the Roboat research programme.
. . The boats could also stack together to form bridges across the canals, for instance to alleviate crowding during busy events.



"Roboat offers enormous possibilities," said AMS scientific director Arjan van Timmeren, adding that the boats could also be used to help carry out "further research on underwater robots that can detect (water-borne) diseases at an early stage".
. . "Or we can use Roboats to rid the canals from floating waste and find a more efficient way to handle the 12,000 bicycles that end up in there every year," Van Timmeren said.
. . With some 165 canals, totalling a length of 50 kilometres (31 miles) according to the Dutch capital's marketing office, Amsterdam is the "ideal place for developing Roboat", researchers said.