Yanmar is moving ahead quickly in the field of creating a totally autonomous blue-water boat, one that navigates and docks all on its own. The company already has developed a docking system that works much faster than a previous version, and an offshore nav system that seems much safer. Yanmar is concentrating on its autonomous marine technology largely because of labor shortages in Japan’s fisheries industries – at a time when the marine aquaculture industry is booming in Asia. The engine builder wants to create a vessel that can serve the fishing fleet without the need to put a crew…

There’s more news on the self-docking front. Volvo and Raymarine have already demonstrated their autonomous docking systems, where the boats essentially dock themselves. Now Yanmar has announced its own system, and you can see how it works in the video below. The Yanmar system is an outgrowth of its experimental “autonomous surface vessel,” a robotic drone boat that Yanmar developed with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), pictured above. It’s 14’ 5” long, weighs 3,600 pounds and can run for 48 hours at speeds up to 5 knots without anyone on board. It also can right itself…