Japan’s shipbuilders and maritime shippers are teaming up to make self-navigating ‘smart ships’ a reality by 2025. They aim to take a global lead in the technology by devising a system that they hope will eventually be adopted as the international standard (and dramatically reduce accidents at sea).
Participants — including Mitsui OSK Lines (
www.mol.co.jp/en) Nippon Yusen (
www.nykline.com) – and plan to split costs and share expertise on the project, which is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The steering system would be driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and would use available technologies such as ‘the Internet of Things’ to instantaneously gather and analyse data about weather at sea and dangerous obstacles, as well as shipping information.
The AI would use this data to plot the optimum route, taking account of fuel efficiency, safety and distance. The ‘smart ships’ would also predict onboard malfunctions and other troubles, thereby helping to avoid maritime accidents.
The first ships will retain a small crew to oversee certain operations, but there are plans to develop fully autonomous ships further down the line.
Nippon Yusen is already researching technology that would let ships use data to assess collision risks, and Japan Marine is working on a system to diagnose breakdowns before they happen by analysing a ship’s condition, such as the status of its engines and fuel levels.
In other developments, Norway recently established a testing area for self-navigating ships; and Rolls-Royce, which counts ship engines among its businesses, is already developing technology for autonomous shipping.