In the ongoing battle of improving, the shipping industry has made the greatest ally; Digitalization. The smart era has already been useful for the sector, while the advancement in the maritime industry has called for the development of autonomous ships, presenting the motion of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS).
Automation and autonomy play a significant role in the shipping industry, paving the way for a more digitalized future and enabling the industry deal with its current smart challenges. Yet, there is confusion between those two terms; so what do we mean when we talk about automation and autonomy within the maritine industry?
Wärtsilä’s Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) will be delivered in the Port of Callao, in Peru, on January 2021 to ensure that port operations will be conducted in a safe manner, given that the port is frequently dealing with fog and haze.
Mr. Tor A. Svanes, Managing Director, NAVTOR AS –who recently received the 2020 SMART4SEA Leadership award for his valuable contribution in the e-navigation field – shares his perspective on the the future of navigation. Among many important things to consider in the digital era, Mr. Svanes highlights that one platform for the exchange of all navigational information is vital as well as a new approach on ECDIS.
Mikael Lind, Associate Professor and Senior strategic research advisor at Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) in Sweden and Chalmers and Juan Carlos Croston is VP Marketing & Corporate Affairs with Manzanillo International Terminal (Panama), state that ship agents have an important monitoring role.
SonicWall, a cyber security company, launched an infographic based on its 2020 report, concerning the cyber threats that heavily targeted Internet of Thing (IoT) devices in 2019.
The technology group Wärtsilä in collaboration with PSA Marine successfully completed IntelliTug project’s sea trials. In fact, through their initiative both sides aim to further enable autonomous navigation.
Automation, digitalization and the use of ships’ data is today having a big impact on the maritime industry. While there is no doubt that cyber is a major growing risk in this area, Gard’s Jarle Fosen states that there is, however, still a more common, less hyped and maybe growing type of shipboard technology related risk that should not be forgotten – the reliability, breakdown and no fault found failure of electronics.
The UK Royal Navy conducted a four-day exercise as they put a full range of remotely-operated devices under autonomous control for a trial off the coast of Norway. The Royal Navy installed an artificial intelligence system, to control the technologies, in amphibious ship Albion, while industry partners joined onboard to implement and oversee the system trials.
Cyber security is a modern challenge the shipping industry has to deal with, given the increase in cyber-attacks. Yet, the times are even harder now with modern ships, which are equipped with high-tech systems making them a vulnerable target.
