Autonomous shipping is the future of the maritime industry. A ship’s ability to monitor its own health, establish and communicate what is around it and make decisions based on that information is vital to the development of autonomous operations Wilhelmsen and KONGSBERG joined forces to take the next step in autonomous shipping by offering a complete value chain for autonomous ships, from design and development, to control systems, logistics services and vessel operations.

1. AUTONOMOUS SHIP
Presentation by
J.Majumder FIE C. Engg.
“Autonomous shipping is the future of the
maritime industry. As disruptive as the
smartphone, the smart ship will revolutionise
the landscape of ship design and operations”

2. AUTONOMOUS SHIP

3. AUTONOMOUS SHIP

4. AUTONOMOUS SHIP

5. AUTONOMOUS SHIP

6. World’s First Autonomous Shipping Company
Wilhelmsen and KONGSBERG joined forces to take the next step in
autonomous shipping by offering a complete value chain for autonomous
ships, from design and development, to control systems, logistics services
and vessel operations.

7. ROLLS-ROYCE AND GOOGLE PARTNER TO
CREATE SMARTER, AUTONOMOUS SHIPS
Rolls Royce announced
this month that it will
use Google’s Cloud
Machine Learning
Engine across a range of
applications, designed
to both make today’s
ships safer and more
efficient, and to launch
the ships of tomorrow.

8. Ship Intelligence will make greater use of ship systems and
sensors to enhance both crew and vessel operating efficiency.

9. Yara Birkeland is set to be the world's first all-
electric, autonomous shipping container vessel .

10. World’s First Fully Autonomous Ferry Demonstrated
The car ferry Falco used a combination of
Rolls-Royce Ship Intelligence
technologies to successfully navigate
autonomously during its voyage between
Parainen and Nauvo. The return journey
was conducted under remote control.
Rolls-Royce and Finnish state-owned
ferry operator Finferries successfully
demonstrated the world’s first fully
autonomous ferry in the archipelago
south of the city of Turku, Finland.
The vessel detected objects utilising sensor fusion and artificial intelligence
and conducted collision avoidance. It also demonstrated automatic berthing
with a recently developed autonomous navigation system. All this was achieved
without any human intervention from the crew.

11. “SEA HUNTER,” WORLD’S LARGEST
AUTONOMOUS SHIP, U.S. NAVY
The U.S. Department of Defense’s
Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA) has completed
trials of the “Sea Hunter” – the
world’s largest unmanned ship. The
vessel demonstrator, which was
tested as part of the agency’s Anti-
Submarine Warfare (ASW)
Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel
(ACTUV) program, has officially
been transferred to the Office of
Naval Research (ONR) for further
development.

12. FOR THE SMART SHIP REVOLUTION TO BECOME
A REALITY A NUMBER OF CRITICAL QUESTIONS
NEED TO BE ANSWERED

13. A ship’s ability to monitor its own health, establish
and communicate what is around it and make
decisions based on that information is vital to the
development of autonomous operations
Technology
The need is to develop a set of electronic senses that inform an
electronic brain and allow the vessel to navigate safely and avoid
collisions.

14. A typical autonomous ship command and control system.

15. Onboard autonomous ship systems and the Shore Control Centre

16. Advanced Sensor Module
On an unmanned ship, sensors and sensor data processing are
replacing the perceptions of the officer of the watch and thus are
critical elements in the realization of autonomy.
The Advanced Sensor Module is responsible for object detection and
classification and environmental perception. It uses input data from
infrared and visual spectrum cameras as well as radar and AIS data
to detect objects and determine if they are a danger to the ship or if
they need to be investigated further, e.g., to identify life rafts,
flotsam, or dangers to navigations.
It maintains a proper lookout for ship traffic and obstacles and
monitors the environmental conditions in the vicinity of the ship.
Sensor information is mainly used by the autonomous Deep Sea
Navigation System but is also presented on an integrated situation
display in the Shore Control Centre.

17. Deep Sea Navigation System
The Deep Sea Navigation System ensures that the ship follows its planned route
within the allowable deviations given by the present operational envelope.
Deviations can be caused by developing severe weather conditions or to avoid
complex traffic situations.
In order to handle a ship on trans-oceanic voyages without on-board crew, the
project has introduced the Deep Sea Navigation System, which:
Determines COL REG-obligations towards other ships and maneuvers the
autonomous ship accordingly to the rules.
Optimizes trans-oceanic voyage plans based on meteorological forecasts.
Operates the ship safely in immediate and harsh weather conditions in
accordance with the IMO weather guidance criteria.
The Deep Sea Navigation System can operate fully autonomously but also allows the
Shore Control Centre operator to interact and thus to remotely control the ship.

18. Remote Maneuvering Support System
Remote Maneuvering Support System aids in carrying out
maneuvers for collision avoidance, while navigating in
constrained waterways and in ports.
By providing the anticipated ship motion trajectory, it is of
essential importance to safe and efficient unmanned and
autonomous ship operation.
The Remote Maneuvering Support System provides calculations
and displays for anticipated ship movements under constraints of
maneuvering ability.

19. Engine Monitoring and Control System
The Engine Monitoring and Control System is an enhancement to
existing ship automation and control systems.
The main aim is to add more advanced condition-monitoring
functionalities. Besides condition monitoring, adding of increased
digital interfaces to the navigation systems and the Shore Control
Centre are necessary to allow autonomous and unmanned
operation of engine room and other technical systems.
It allows very compact information to be sent to the Shore
Control Centre with the possibility to request lower level
measurements or intermediate calculations where needed.

22. Shore Control Centre
The Shore Control Centre acts as a continuously manned
supervisory station for monitoring and controlling a fleet of
autonomous ships. Most of the time, the ships are operating without
any need for intervention from shore.
In cases where the automated onboard systems cannot safely
handle a situation, assistance will be provided. The limits for what is
considered safe are customizable within the so-called operational
envelope, setting navigational boundaries.
The operational envelope will also include other factors such as
visibility, wave height and traffic.

24. Engine Monitoring and Control System
The Engine Monitoring and Control System is an enhancement to
existing ship automation and control systems.
The main aim is to add more advanced condition-monitoring
functionalities. Besides condition monitoring, adding of increased
digital interfaces to the navigation systems and the Shore Control
Centre are necessary to allow autonomous and unmanned operation
of engine room and other technical systems.
It allows very compact information to be sent to the Shore Control
Centre with the possibility to request lower level measurements or
intermediate calculations where needed.