Drones continue their relentless march towards world domination – at least on the theoretical level. John McDuling took a look at the role they could play on the oceans:

• Rolly Royce is looking into building drone ships for cargo shipping.
• Such ships would be lighter and would have more space for cargo since life support equipment wouldn’t have to be included.
• The biggest barrier is differing ocean regulations across nations.
• Unmanned ships would also be vulnerable to pirates – although the ships could carry missile equipped drone aircraft or launch mini sea drones to fight them off.
• The European Commission is looking into a system where the ship would be unmanned for most of its voyage, and then have a crew board as it came close to docking on shore.

Read more about this possible future here. Read the rest of our series on drones here.

Source: Quartz