Japanese shipping major NYK tested the remote navigation of a tugboat, part of the Japanese government’s Sea Trial Project on Remote Control Navigation, which aims to establish necessary requirements for the realization of autonomous ships.
The test was conducted within the Tokyo Bay using Yoshino Maru tugboat, operated by Shin-Nippon Kaiyosha Corporation, an NYK Group company.
The tugboat was equipped with a manned remotely controlled system, was operated remotely from an operation center in the city of Nishinomiya in Hyogo prefecture approximately 400 kilometers away.
The tugboat was maneuvered about 12 kilometres in Tokyo Bay between an area off Honmoku and an area off the port of Yokosuka.
NYK commented that “the operator in the remote operation center was able to use sensors and cameras equipped to the tugboat to recognize surrounding conditions and created a route plan and action plan (collision avoidance route plan).”
The company concluded by revealing its plans on starting remote navigation tests using domestic coastal ships within this year.
Back in 2018, the company launched a new concept for a ship’s bridge and employed it on a large container ship, where the space and nautical instruments on this new bridge have been designed to take advantage of IoT aspects of instruments and to improve the safety and efficiency of vessel operation.
