NYK will participate in “Japan Maritime Cluster Collaborative Research on Evaluation of Ship Performance in Actual Seas”, or “OCTARVIA Phase 2”, led by Japan’s National institute of Maritime, Port and Aviation Technology.
Twenty-three Japanese companies in the fields of shipping, shipbuilding, and the maritime affairs, in addition to meteorological organizations, will participate in this project.
The first meeting was held on March 15 to discuss research implementation and how to proceed. In the future, the companies will invest about 260 million yen in this joint research over the two years ending March 2024.
Phase 1 of OCTARVIA ran from November 2017 to March 2021 to develop a method for accurately evaluating ship performance, such as speed and fuel efficiency in sea areas with waves and winds that are expected to be seen during the ship design stage.
This initiative will lead to efficient sea transportation and a reduction of environmental burdens such as greenhouse gas emissions.
The project consists of the OCTARVIA Conference and OCTARVIA2, both of which have a different number of participating institutions, and NYK will participate in these together with NYK Group company MTI.
The results obtained in Phase 1 of OCTARVIA (actual ship estimation, measurement, evaluation method, calculation program, etc. in actual sea areas) will be shared to shipping companies and shipyards, including those not participating in the project.
The companies will also try to negotiate with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Towing Tank Conference (ITTC) to promote international standardization.
We will promote further technical research on the deliverables developed in Phase 1 of OCTARVIA. Specifically, we will study the application of the evaluation method for life cycle ship performance developed in Phase 1 to ships using alternative fuels. In order for each participating organization to verify the performance of actual vessels in actual sea areas, we will link the data with the IoS-Open Platform (IoS-OP) promoted by Ship Data Center Ltd. (ShipDC) and the meteorological and oceanographic data service POLARIS
NYK explained.
Recently, NYK and its group companies MTI and Japan Maritime Science have received approval in principle (AiP) for a fully autonomous ship framework that is currently being developed under the name of “APExS-auto.”
APExS is an acronym for “Action Planning and Execution System for Full Autonomous.” This framework for the realization of a crewed-autonomous ship includes high-speed computer-based information processing technology and risk analyses that support crew members’ situational awareness and the decision-making necessary for maneuvering.
In fact, the computer will execute maneuvering operations only after receiving crew’s approval.
