A Japanese ferry reportedly set a new record for the longest
and furthest autonomous navigation as part of an ongoing series of
demonstrations in a government-sponsored project to advance the technologies
for unmanned ship operations. Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines as the leader of one
of the consortiums working on the project announced the latest achievement this
time working with coastal ferry following. Other tests proceeded with a Ro-Pax
ferry and a container ship as part of the Nippon Foundation's MEGURI2040
project.
The latest demonstration project was conducted with the
Sunflower Shiretoko, an 11,400 gross ton ferry. The test followed the normal
commercial route of the ferry, which traveled a distance of approximately 466
miles over 18 hours. The 623-foot-long vessel has a normal capacity for 154
passengers as well as 62 cars and 160 heavy trucks. The ferry operates between
the northern Japanese Tomakomai Port on Hokkaido Island and the Oarai Port in
central Japan. The trial was conducted on February 6 and 7
The current test combined four critical systems. They tested
the autonomous berthing and unberthing for the vessel as well as the collision
avoidance routing system and a visual image processing system that identifies
targets and calculates ranges.
MOL working with Imoto Lines provided the vessel for this
test and was also responsible for the overall coordination and risk evaluation
for the demonstration. Mitsui E&S Shipbuilding developed the technology for
the automated collision avoidance routing, ship’s operation in port, and
berthing-unberthing operation, while Furuno Electric was responsible for the
systems that integrated information from sensors during navigation and at
berthing to provide the “Cognitive" function in the automation system.
A.L.I. Technologies developed the mooring support technology, which as in the
prior test uses a drone to move the lines to the dock. MOL Marine &
Engineering Co. created the simulation program for testing the collision
avoidance navigation/ berthing/unberthing functions.
According to MOL, there remain issues such as improving
sensing technology and making collision avoidance routes even closer to normal
crew operations. The consortium 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.
The Nippon Foundation launched the MEGURI 2040 fully
autonomous ship navigation project in February 2020 supporting five consortia,
which will all be conducting demonstration tests to verify their fully
autonomous navigation system concepts from January to March 2022. Among the
goals the foundation aims to address will be to resolve issues in coastal
shipping including improved safety, crew labor savings, and cost reductions.
The sea trial of the coastal car ferry followed the
successful test of autonomous sailing with a coastal containership also conducted
by MOL. The system used for the autonomous sailing in the tests of these two
vessels is the same specification, and based on the success of these
demonstrations, MOL believes that it was suggested that autonomous sailing
might be possible on any ship by installing necessary equipment. Mitsubishi
Shipbuilding also conducted a demonstration in January using a larger coastal
ferry.
This was the second series of tests MOL conducted with this
ferry. In March and April 2021, they demonstrated the auto berthing function
and the ability to sail from a pier unmanned. The latest round of
demonstrations builds on the earlier test with the goal of developing a highly
versatile technology for commercial applications of autonomous vessels by 2025.