Watch Rolls-Royce Very cool Star Wars Style Bridge Concept. Rolls-Royce predicts that Ship Intelligence will be the next major transition and potentially lead to autonomous vessels or self driving ships and super yachts with augmented reality displays.
Together with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Rolls-Royce unveiled its latest vision of Ship Intelligence – a futuristic ship’s bridge concept which could become reality by 2025.
Rolls-Royce has worked together with VTT’s researchers and Aalto University to develop the new bridge, known as the Future Operator Experience Concept or ‘oX’. It offers the crew smart workstations, which automatically recognise individuals when they walk into the bridge, and adjust to their own preferences.
The windows of the bridge serve as augmented reality displays of the vessel’s surroundings, including visualisation of potential hazards that would otherwise be invisible to the human eye. The system can, for example, pinpoint sea ice or tug boats and other craft that may not be visible to the crew, especially on large container ships.
Mikael Makinen, Rolls-Royce, President – Marine, said: “We are entering a truly exciting period in the history of shipping, where technology, and in particular the smart use of Big Data is going to drive the next generation of ships. Over the next ten to 20 years we believe Ship Intelligence is going to be the driving force that will determine the future of our industry, the type of ships at sea, and the competence levels required from tomorrow’s seafarers.