The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea 1972 (“COLREGS”), as amended, provides general rules to be followed in order to avoid collisions at sea where good seamanship should complement these rules. There has been a significant number of collisions where misuse of VHF radio equipment and AIS information has been established to be a contributory factor.
OCIMF published a safety bulletin highlighting the importance of verifying the level of awareness and familiarity vessel personnel have with key learnings, procedures and regulations affected by the Sanchi collision.
On April 15 2020, Fujitsu Limited verified that the results of a joint field trial with the Japan Coast Guard to predict vessel collisions with AI technology were successful. Specifically, the company’s AI technology will be used to detect collision risks early and mitigate the danger of such accidents.
Learning from mistakes is vital for preventing casualties and mariners have much to gain from studying the judgements of court cases, which contain valuable lessons for the future. But to what extend is it practical for mariners to read such court documents?
Fujitsu Limited recently released the results of a joint field trial with the Japan Coast Guard on how to predict vessel collisions using artificial intelligence technology. Namely, the trial project started in December 2019 and completed in March 2020.
In its Loss prevention – Navigational claims publication, the Swedish Club describes a collision between two vessels in a narrow channel. In this case, while there was a verbal agreement to pass ‘starboard to starboard’, one of the two vessels did not maintain position on its starboard side of the fairway.
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.
During the last SAFETY4SEA Singapore Forum, Harry Hirst, Partner & Master Mariner, Ince & Co highlighted that in order to avoid a collision, a vessel must first detect and then observe and plot the approach of the other vessel so as to make a proper appraisal of the situation and risk of collision in order to be able to take timely and positive avoiding action. To allow time for a proper appraisal and effective avoiding action it is important also, that the vessel is proceeding at an appropriate – or safe – speed.
TT Club, ICHCA International and PEMA issued a new paper ‘Collision prevention at ports and terminals’, in a bid to improve safety, reduce injuries and loss of life, equipment damage and minimize costly business disruption at ports and terminals worldwide.
As Gard informs, in a significant number of collisions, the club has found that the majority of mariners do not reduce speed to avoid a collision. However, it notes that in case there is a potential for collision, reducing speed can have many benefits.
