roundAround

Connecting Amsterdam's Marineterrein and City Center without a static structure drove the development of roundAround, a dynamic bridge composed of autonomous boats. Executed in collaboration with the MIT Senseable City Lab and the AMS Institute, the project focused on marine robotics, embedded prototyping, and urban data collection. The work translated early autonomous navigation concepts into a fleet of modular, self-driving vessels capable of transporting hundreds of passengers per hour.

Prototyping began with 3D-printed hulls and RC jets before scaling up to full four-meter vessels. The hardware architecture integrated gyroscopes and a custom drive-by-wire system that automatically adjusted thrust to stabilize multi-directional movement. A remote-control system with telemetry visualization was built to monitor the fleet, while dashboards were developed to communicate system behavior. The physical design prioritized a modular single-hull structure with interlocking connectors, allowing the boats to pivot, move laterally, and form continuous chains.

Operating autonomous systems on water introduced severe environmental constraints, as currents, wakes, and shifting conditions made navigation highly unpredictable. Sensor integration required constant debugging, particularly because water refracted lidar signals and complicated object classification. Internal disagreements over stability led to a data-driven iteration cycle. By collaborating with a naval engineer to run simulations on weight distribution and drag, the single-hull approach was validated over a catamaran design, proving it could maximize internal space without sacrificing stability in chaotic canals.

The system successfully demonstrated feasibility through full-scale prototype deployments in Amsterdam, operating as both passenger transport and mobile environmental stations. This validation helped secure €25 million in municipal funding to scale the initiative. The research eventually spun out into an independent entity, Roboat.Tech, extending the technology to other urban deployments. Further details and project documentation are available on the roundAround website.