Autonomous ship operations will take a giant step forward
later this year as South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries plans to operate the
first ocean-going demonstration voyage of an unmanned system. According to the
shipbuilding company, before the end of the year, they will undertake a voyage
using one of the large, new liquefied natural gas carriers (LNG) currently
under construction at one of the company’s shipyards.
Hyundai is involving several parts of the group as it seeks
to move forward aggressively with automation in different parts of its
operations. The group launched a dedicated company focused on autonomous
operations called Avikus Corp. which has been working with the shipyard on the
development of a system they call Hyundai Intelligent Navigation Assistant
System (HiNAS) 2.0. Outside the maritime world, Hyundai has also demonstrated
autonomous equipment including a warehouse forklift.
For the upcoming demonstration voyage, Hyundai plans to
deploy the system on a 985 foot long newly built LNG carrier currently being
built within its Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. Depending on
the timing of the completion of the ship and other factors, the voyage will
either be on the Pacific or the Indian Ocean. According to the company, it will
be the world’s first transoceanic voyage where the system will manage the ship
only overseen by the crew onboard.
HiNAS, jointly developed by Hyundai Heavy Industries Group
and KAIST, uses artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) to
automatically recognize nearby ships through ship camera analysis to determine
the risk of collision. In the first version of the system, it informed the
navigator and aided in situations where visibility is not secured such as at
night or in sea fog. The infrared cameras can be used to comprehensively
analyze and provide information such as the location and speed of obstacles.
In the second version of the system that will be used on the
LNG carrier test, the system automatically recognizes objects surrounding the
vessel and route to eliminate the risk of collision. The vessel will also be
equipped with the Hyundai Intelligent Berthing Assistant System (HiBAS), which
provides a full view of the ship when berthing. Based on the results of the
demonstration, the group said it will decide on the commercialization strategy
for its autonomous navigation solution.
Previously, Hyundai conducted a first level test aboard a
250,000 dwt bulk carrier operated by SK Shipping. In that test, the system
provided decision-making support to officers including the navigator and
captain. The upcoming test moves to the next level where the crew is onboard
overseeing the operations. At the third level, the system would control most of
the ship’s operations with only a minimum number of crew aboard, while at the
highest level the ship operates entirely autonomously without a crew aboard.
Recently, Hyundai demonstrated a 12-passenger vessel
operating in fully autonomous mode sailing through the canals in South Korea.
Hyundai expects to have the first commercial application for a leisure craft
available in 2022 and the first version for smaller passenger crafts to be
available by 2023.
Hyundai Heavy Industries is also participating in the
state-led five-year autonomous navigation technology development project. South
Korea is investing $140 million to develop the autonomous shipping market
targeting as much as a 50 percent share of the market which is projected to
reach $150 billion by 2030.