Avikus, a subsidiary of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, conducted autonomous navigation of a large LNG carrier Prism Courage across the ocean, thus becoming the first company to achieve that.
Along with SK Shipping, Avikus informed that on 2 June managed to complete autonomous navigation of the Prism Courage. The vessel is a 180,000 square-meter-class ultra-large LNG carrier, featuring an autonomous navigation solution.
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The Prism Courage left from the Freeport on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico on 1 May, passed through the Panama Canal, and arrived at the Boryeong LNG Terminal in South Chungcheong Province in Korea.
Avikus’ HiNAS 2.0 is a navigation system that creates optimal routes and speeds based on Hyundai Global Service’s Integrated Smartship Solution (ISS). More specifically, by using artificial intelligence it recognizes the surrounding environment and then controls the vessel’s steering commands in real-time.
On this voyage, Prism Courage was operated autonomously on the optimal routes, increasing the fuel efficiency by around 7% while reducing GHG emissions by about 5%. Also, the system accurately recognized the locations of nearby ships during operation to avoid collision about 100 times.
Captain Young-hoon Koh of the ship, commented on the trip:
Avikus’ autonomous navigation technology was greatly helpful in this ocean-crossing test especially for maintaining navigating routes, autonomously changing directions, and avoiding nearby ships, which were all increasing ship crews’ work conveniences
This voyage was conducted under real-time monitoring of the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and the Korea Register of Shipping to verify the performance and stability of the technology. Avikus plans to commercialize HiNAS 2.0 within this year after receiving a certification from ABS for the results of this self-propelled ocean crossing.
