MOL and Partners set World Records for Time and Distance in Autonomous Navigation with Sea Trial using Large Commercial Car Ferry follows Successful Trial of Coastal Containership in Autonomous Sailing

February 7, 2022

The Sunflower Shiretoko, the large coastal car ferry used for the trial of autonomous sailing

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, together with its two group companies and the following consortium partners, announced the completion of a successful sea trial of autonomous sailing using a large commercial coastal car ferry, in a voyage from the Tomakomai Port, Hokkaido Prefecture to the Oarai Port, Ibaraki Prefecture.

The test followed the actual commercial route of the ferry Sunflower Shiretoko, covering a distance of about 750km, the world’s longest distance for autonomous sailing, in about 18 hours, also a world record.
The significance about this test is the confirmation of the development elements “the Autonomous Berthing and Unberthing Technology”, “the Autonomous Collision Avoidance Routing System”, and “the Target Visual Image Processing and Ranging Technology” which functioned normally even during such a long voyage

The sea trial of the coastal car ferry followed the successful test of autonomous sailing with a coastal containership. The system used for the autonomous sailing in the tests of these two vessels is same specification, and based on the success of these demonstrations, we believe that it was suggested that autonomous sailing might be possible on any ship by installing necessary equipment.

At present, there are issues such as improving sensing technology and making collision avoidance routes even closer to the feeling of crew members and the consortium avoidance routes even closer to the feeling of crew members and the consortium continually aims to reduce the workload on seafarers and ensure safe, secure marinecontinually aims to reduce the workload on seafarers and ensure safe, secure marine traffic by integrating the knowledge gained through MEGURI2040 initiatives to realize autonomous sailing activities with AI technologies such as computer vision.