The technology that allows ships to move autonomously is now a reality. However, it is necessary to ensure the reliability of their systems and amend the legislation. (KONGSBERG)
Autonomous vessels: the path of automation on the seas
The technology that allows ships to move autonomously is now a reality. Companies such as KONGSBERG, Navantia or Rolls-Royce have boats equipped with state-of-the-art technology and operating systems capable of making their own decisions. However, for these ships to start sailing the seas without a crew, it is necessary to go one step further: ensure the reliability of their systems and modify the legislation to adapt it to a new scenario.
Posted on
10.14.2021
The technology that allows ships to move autonomously is now a reality. However, it is necessary to ensure the reliability of their systems and amend the legislation. (KONGSBERG)
In southwestern Finland, the port of the coastal city of Turku serves as a gateway to the Baltic Sea and as a connection point to many other nearby towns. There, the Rolls-Royce company and the operator Finferries tested the world's first fully autonomous ferry in 2018.
Since then, the technology that shapes these vessels has continued to advance. “Today there are numerous prototypes capable of navigating completely autonomously, although their use is limited for the moment to areas defined for testing. The reason is that the technology exists, but everything else needs to be adapted,” explains Raúl Villa Caro, secretary of the Exponav Foundation and associate professor in the Department of Naval and Industrial Engineering at the University of A Coruña (UDC).
First, for the implementation of autonomous ships to be a reality, it is necessary to adapt the legislation. “The International Maritime Organization (IMO) began in 2017 an exploratory study of all the regulations that could be affected by this new form of navigation. It ended in May 2021 and now it's time for the most complicated step: finding a way to modify it to ensure that autonomous boats can coexist with the crew in a safe and sustainable way,” explains Villa.
Autonomy, AI and new mooring systems
The first conclusion of the study carried out by the IMO was that, in order to organize a world in which ships do not require a crew, it is necessary to define what an autonomous ship is. Currently, a MASS (Marine Autonomous Surface Ship) is considered any surface ship capable of navigating thanks to artificial intelligence programs and without the need for human interaction.
Depending on their degree of autonomy, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) divides them into four main categories:
- Ships with automated processes and decision support: although some processes are automated, it is necessary to have a crew on board to take control if a problem arises.
- Vessels controlled remotely, but with reduced crew on board: the vessels are controlled from a station on land, but have personnel to solve possible breakdowns.
- Remotely controlled vessels with no crew on board: vessels are only controlled remotely, from a shore station.
- Fully autonomous ships: ships have an operating system capable of making its own decisions at all times.
According to the professor of the UDC, the need to modify almost all the existing legislation is one of the greatest challenges in getting autonomous ships to sail seas and oceans alongside traditional ships. This legislation is necessary to guarantee its safety, its efficiency and its maintenance, among other factors.
Having these unmanned vessels also means adapting their starting and finishing points: ports and docks. "The vast majority of vessels dock with rope systems, in operations that cannot be carried out without a crew on board," explains Villa. "For this reason, in order for ports and docks to receive autonomous ships, it is necessary to equip them with automatic docking systems."
Today there are some vacuum or magnetic mechanisms. CAVOTEC, for example, has developed the MoorMaster solution, based on suction cups that adhere to any flat surface and guarantee the mooring of ships of different sizes in just 30 seconds. This way they reduce not only the docking time, but also the energy consumption and emissions of the tugboats and thrusters of the vessels.
The USV Vendaval has been active in the Ceuta Port Authority since 2019. This vessel can be manned and controlled remotely and depend solely on its autonomous driving system.
On the other side of Europe, Norwegian companies KONGSBERG and Yara International are collaborating in the creation of Yara Birkeland, the world's first autonomous and fully electric container ship. It is expected to complete its first routes between the Norwegian cities of Herøya and Brevik before the end of 2021.
To this day, the Yara Birkeland still needs a crew to run some of its processes, but companies hope to machine them over the next few years. The same is true of prototypes from many other companies.
“Technology is going very fast, but it is necessary to bring regulation and the rest of the maritime sector agents to the same level. In addition, economic aspects come into play: letting the boats sail alone is, for now, a very big risk,” says Villa. "In my opinion, it is most likely that in the coming years we will see an increase above all in the number of ships of categories I and II, which have some automated processes, but still have the role of the crew on board," he concludes.
The race for automation is also of interest to entrepreneurs and tycoons like Elon Musk, who in July unveiled "A Shortfall of Gravitas" on Twitter, a floating maritime platform for landing rockets. The platform is fully automated and does not need a tugboat.
