MOL announced that together with its two group companies and the following consortium partners have successfully concluded the world’s first sea trial of unmanned ship operation from port to port on 24th and 25th January, as part of the unmanned ship project MEGURI2040 led by The Nippon Foundation.
Development of “Cognitive” function (Integration of information from sensors during navigation and at berthing)
Provide test ship and seafarers, develop ship operation plan.
Development of mooring support technology (Throwing a heaving line from the ship to the pier using a unmanned drone)
Provide test ship and seafarers, develop ship operation plan.
Create simulation program of collision avoidance navigation/ berthing/unberthing for testing automated function of those scene.
Development of “Judgement” and “Ship Operation” functions
(Automated collision avoidance routing, automated ship operation in port, automated berthing/unberthing operation)
For autonomous navigation, the ships followed a previously formulated route using the MES-S-developed autonomous ship operation control system, in consideration of the following elements.
- Accurately grasp ship location information
- Various external elements such as wind and tides/currents
- Ship handling performance specific to each ship (maneuverability, conditions ofacceleration and deceleration)/configuration of ship handing equipment
- Navigation rules applied to shipsInformation on other ships and obstacles/debris on the set route was gathered by the Furuno Electric-developed autonomous surrounding information integration system (measures and displays positions, speed, types of nearby ships, and position of obstacles/debris by integrating information gained by cognition through radar, AIS, and camera images). Based on the integrated information, the ship navigated the safe route formulated by the autonomous collision avoidance routing system.
Autonomous berthing and unberthing require especially delicate handling, so the ship berthed and unberthed using information from the Furuno Electric- developed berthing/unberthing support sensor (equipment that calculates and visually displays accurate relative distances and relative angles between the pier and hull from information gathered by LiDAR/camera/satellite compass).
“Automated mooring” is an element of the consortium’s project. Normally, a crewmember on the ship passes the heaving line (to moor the ship in port) by throwing it to a worker on the pier. In this sea trial, the A.L.I.-developed automatic flight drone carried the line to the pier. As technology advances in the future, this is expected to become an alternative approach to mooring operations, which is a heavy burden on seafarers.
“Automated Mooring” using an Automatic Flight Drone
In order to develop highly versatile technologies, the consortium plans a sea trial of autonomous navigation using the coastal car ferry “Sunflower Shiretoko,” which has different characteristics from the coastal containership.
The consortium continually aims to reduce the workload on seafarers and ensure safe, secure marine traffic, through MEGURI2040 initiatives to realize autonomous sailing.
