DeepSea Technologies, the leading maritime AI company and part of the Nabtesco Group, has received Type Approval from leading classification society DNV for their latest product. DeepSea HyperPilot automatically and precisely controls the change of speeds across a voyage to achieve fuel savings and empower captains and crews. This is DNV’s first Type Approval of a system that provides automatic speed adjustment to a propulsion control system.

An easily retrofittable control device, HyperPilot streamlines adherence to officers’ voyage-level route and speed plans by dynamically retrieving the speed command corresponding to the vessel’s current location and automatically feeding it to the propulsion control system. It eliminates the manual process of dynamically adjusting the RPM of the main engine, while enabling speeds to be planned more precisely for optimal operational efficiency. Use of HyperPilot increases the value vessels can draw from route and speed optimisation solutions, such as DeepSea’s flagship Pythia product, by enabling officers to more closely maintain optimised speeds. Fuel and emissions savings will be boosted, while the user experience will be simplified through automation.

The Type Approval certificate verifies that the HyperPilot solution successfully meets the requirements of the relevant international standards and DNV’s rules for the classification of ships. This achievement affirms DeepSea’s commitment to driving the development and adoption of AI-powered optimisation solutions in the maritime industry.

Full-scale trials of the product are expected to commence in Q3 2024, with plans to go to market later in the year.

Dr. Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos, Co-Founder and CEO of DeepSea Technologies said: “The success of speed optimisation for fuel efficiency depends on the precision with which optimal speeds can be followed. With the implementation of HyperPilot, officers will have more precise and convenient control of their vessels’ routes and speeds, achieving greater efficiency for their owners and charterers. Receiving Type Approval from DNV prepares the way for our ongoing development of innovative solutions to deliver efficient and sustainable autonomous vessels.”

Jarle Blomhoff, Head of the Digital Ship Systems section at DNV said: “We are very pleased to have worked with DeepSea on this new system and congratulate them for their commitment to demonstrating that their systems rest on a sound technical foundation. Boosting energy efficiency is an essential part of the maritime transition to a more sustainable future and leveraging the potential of autonomous systems to assist the crew onboard is an exciting development for the industry. The complexity introduced by autonomous systems makes it vital to have a framework that can assess the safety performance of these systems – which is why at DNV we are constantly developing rules and guidelines like the Class guideline for autonomous ships that enable our customers to innovate on a basis of well-established trust.”