Michigan Technological University’s Great Lakes Research Center unveiled a game-changing research site in Houghton, Michigan.
The Marine Autonomy Research Site (MARS) is dedicated to testing unmanned surface and underwater vessels.
The big focus is on revolutionizing international maritime shipping, however, hundreds of other applications of the new technology are possible also.
They will do their testing in a 30-mile radius in the vicinity of Lake Superior’s Portage Canal.
Newly established policy thinktank, The Smart Ships Coalition of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence, will work towards ensuring that the region is a global center of excellence for smart ship technologies.
The Michigan Office of the Great Lakes – an office within the Michigan Department of Natural Resources that supports efforts to protect, restore and sustain Michigan’s waters and Great Lakes communities – assisted with development of the testing site.
“The waters near the Keweenaw Peninsula, including seasonally “Arctic-like conditions,” make the new Marine Autonomy Research Site an ideal testing ground for developing expertise, platforms and equipment that can withstand extreme Great Lakes and oceanic conditions,” says the MOGL.
Michigan Tech Great Lakes Research Center
https://www.mtu.edu/greatlakes/
Great Lakes Testing Site
http://nfas.autonomous-ship.org/events/ow2018/35_Beaulac.pdf
DNR’s Office of the Great Lakes
Michigan State of the Great Lakes Report from 2017
Great Lakes Commission
