Robotic Mayflower Autonomous Ship wants to track Mayflowers journey from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts

SWANSEA, Wales Four centuries and a year after the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England, on a historic sea voyage to America, another pioneering ship of the same name has set out to trace the voyage back.

However, this Mayflower is a sleek, modern robot ship that has no human crew or passengers on board. It will be controlled by advanced artificial intelligence technology for a transatlantic crossing that could take up to three weeks in a project aimed at revolutionizing marine research.

IBM, which built the $1.3 million advanced ship with the nonprofit marine research organization ProMare, said the Mayflower Autonomous Ship began its journey early Tuesday.

Charting the path of its 1620 namesake, the Mayflower will land in Provincetown on Cape Cod before making its way to Plymouth, Massachusetts.

If successful, it would be the largest autonomous vessel to cross the Atlantic.

The new Mayflowers voyage was originally planned for last year, as part of the 400th anniversary of the original ship voyage that transported Pilgrim settlers to New England.

The launch was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and more recently by bad weather in May, IBM spokesman Jonathan Batty said.

Batty said the delay allowed the mounting of a unique feature of the ship: an electric tongue that can provide instant analysis of the ocean’s chemistry, called Hypertaste.

It’s a brand new device that has never been made before, Batty said.

The ship also carries memories from people at both ends of the journey, such as rocks, personal photos, and books.

The Mayflower project aims to usher in a new era for automated research vessels. The designers hope it will be the first in a new generation of high-tech ships that can explore ocean areas that are too difficult or too dangerous for humans to enter.

The 15-foot trimaran, powered by a solar-powered hybrid electric motor, is packed with artificial intelligence-powered cameras and dozens of onboard sensors that will collect data on ocean acidification, microplastics and marine mammal conservation.