The European research program “Horizon 2020” funded 20.1 million euros to the Norwegian consortium led by Kongsberg and SINTEF, for its autonomous ships project, one of the largest grands the Norwegian players ever receive.
Royal Navy is planning to launch unmanned mine hunters and survey technology. Namely, a specialist autonomous kit has now been handed over into military service and will start live operations from March.
ClassNK published guidelines concerning autonomous ships and operations aiming to improving safety by preventing human error and improving working conditions by reducing the work load on crew members, and demonstration experiments are being carried out on a global scale.
Japanese shipping company MOL announced a joint study with three com-patriot partners on collision avoidance algorithms and autonomous collision avoidance. The study, to be named ‘Focus Brain’ is aspiring the development of Artificial Intelligence for autonomous navigation.
Shipping will continue to play an important part of the world economy for decades to come, but the industry itself, the vessels, the infrastructure, and the systems that connect them could change substantially, said Remi Eriksen, Group President and CEO of DNV GL.
As 2019 comes to an end, the time has come for an annual review concerning smart shipping. This year, the shipping industry continued facing and taking part in major technological developments, providing maritime stakeholders with opportunities to explore new opportunities in the smart era in the field of autonomous vessels, connectivity onboard and cyber security, spreading the digitalization message across the whole industry.
China’s autonomous ship development succeeded its first ever trial voyage, when the country’s first autonomous cargo ship, Jin Dou Yun 0 Hao, completed its testing voyage in Zhuhai. The ship began its trial from Zhuhai’s Dong Ao island completed its voyage from the island to the No. 1 pier of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge successfully.
Marsh JLT Specialty P&I launched a report analyzing the overall performance of P&I Clubs on a global scale and their role in the industry, yet, focusing on the future of autonomous vessels and how automation will impact the P&I industry.
The Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) in collaboration with the telecommunications operator SK Telecom (SKT) came together for the development and verification of a 5-G based autonomous and remote control navigation test platform, with the use of a test ship.
Classification Society ClassNK has concluded a joint research agreement for developing advanced condition-based maintenance (CBM); a new maintenance and management system to be used for the machineries of autonomous ships, as well as to further establish a new classification survey scheme based on CBM.
