I've been reading forum posts by sailors concerned by the increase in unmanned monitoring vessels. This concerns a collision on Lake Erie. The NTSB has recommendations for improving the safety of such operations. What bothers me is that they assigned no responsibility to the powerboat that ran down what could have been a kayaker. It was daylight, and the drone was transmitting AIS, which the powerboat was not monitoring (not required, but it was a 45' boat moving at 25 mph, which in my mind, increases responsibility).
Read the report. Reach your own conclusions.
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A small excerpt from the NTSB report, MIR-26-32.
... While the USV was underway near the WE08 site, the recreational vessel owner
was transiting back to Safe Harbor Toledo Beach on a southwest heading at cruising
speed (about 25 mph). Having owned and operated vessels in the Monroe area for
over 20 years, the operator had a thorough understanding of the area and was
navigating his vessel visually. Although the sun was positioned at a low angle in the
western sky off the starboard side of the vessel, the operator told investigators that
the sun was not impairing his vision. He stated there was about 2–3 miles of visibility.
With an overall length of 15.7 feet, the USV had a similar length to a small-sized
recreational vessel such as a kayak, canoe, rowboat, or powered skiff. The USV had a
yellow hull, meant to help make it more visible to other vessel operators. However,
due to the vessel’s design, only about 1 foot of freeboard was visible. Additionally,
most of the main deck was covered with solar paneling, which was dark in color, thus
obscuring the vessel’s yellow coloring and making it blend in with the surrounding
water. At the time of the collision, waves were 3 feet, which would have intermittently
obscured the USV’s hull as it dropped through the troughs of the waves and made it
difficult to discern the USV in the water (figure 15 shows the vessel underway in
similar wave conditions). Further, most of the USV’s hull appeared dark yellow when
viewed from the side, as the vessel’s design cast a shadow on the hull....
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