tasks such as monitoring water quality and infrastructure in the open sea, or as test beds for the technology. But the next couple of years will see a sea change, with the first larger ‘maritime autonomous surface ships’ planned to start commercial operation.
Pilot projects include the Norwegian container ship Yara Birkeland (pictured), an 80-metre- long vessel that, by 2024, is expected to convey fertilizer autonomously and with zero emissions from a manufacturing plant to an export port. In China, a 120-metre-long electric container ship called Zhi Fei has been demonstrated shuttling under remote (and sometimes autonomous) control between two ports in Shandong province.
In a decade, automated vessels might interact with one another. For instance, the Vessel Train, a pilot project funded by the European Union and coordinated by the Netherlands Maritime Technology Foundation in Rotterdam, uses a crewed lead vessel to head a convoy of smaller, automated ones that can access small waterways around ports efficiently. Ultimately, fleets of self-steering ships or boats might be managed from maritime traffic- control centres located on shore.
But if autonomous vessels are to fulfil their promise, much remains to be done — and soon. More than 50,000 merchant ships trade internationally, under the flags of some 150 nations. A large, high-tech vessel can cost US$200 million to build, and can operate for decades. Ships are complex technically. They need to work in busy shipping lanes, ports and rough open seas.
Combining maritime systems is daunting — from radar, satellites and GPS, cameras and sensors, to image recognition, data analytics and machine-learning algorithms. And autonomous ships need to be plugged into a broader ecosystem of maritime technologies, including interactions between ships and with cargo handlers, equipment, pilots, traffic services and ports.
Here, we highlight research gaps in six key areas...
UNDERSTAND THE
CHALLENGES AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF AUTONOMY
The roll-out of increasing levels of autonomy needs to be managed to assure safety and to allow regulation to keep up. Operational guidelines are needed for vessels in the four classes of autonomy defined by the IMO.
The first challenge is to add sensors and algorithms based on AI and deep learning to the autopilot systems that are currently used on some crewed ships and boats — classed as IMO autonomy level one. Obstacles such as small boats, debris, swimmers and riverbanks do not appear on radar or on the global ‘automatic identification system’ (AIS) that tracks maritime traffic. Visual and thermal cameras and lasers would give a captain a better view of what is around, helping to avoid collisions, assess risks and plan routes — tasks that are now done manually. But to do that, researchers need to overcome limitations to sensor systems — for instance, that some smaller obstacles can be indistinguishable from waves.
Autonomy level two includes remotely controlled vessels that are run by a small on-board crew to act as a
back-up and deal with maintenance and cargo. Increasingly used on rivers and canals to transport freight, these are operated at a distance on behalf of ship and boat owners, by maritime technology providers such as Seafar in Antwerp, Belgium, and the US company Sea Machines.
Remotely controlled vessels without crew (level three) are also already in operation. So far, these are mainly ‘drones’ less than 10 metres long, used for measuring water depth or monitoring marine habitats and harbours. Scaling them up to ship size, and carrying cargo, cranes, robotics and fuel, requires passing a higher safety bar, and adding systems to avoid grounding, collisions and loss of communication.
Some small drones have achieved full autonomy (level four). In these, the operating system makes decisions and determines actions by itself for a period. For example, the Wave Glider, AutoNaut, Sailbuoy and Saildrone boats can operate independently for days in the open ocean, powered by wind, solar and wave energy. The challenges of operating near coasts, among other vessels and in shallow water and currents remain to be addressed.
For vessels at all levels of autonomy, guidelines must also encompass mixed environments in which autonomous and crewed vessels share the same waters. Researchers need to develop cooperative navigation and communication systems in and between groups of vessels, enabling them to operate as a fleet.
DEFINE THE ROLE OF HUMANS
Autonomous ships will always have a human somewhere in the loop, to check on navigation, perform
The Report • June 2023 • Issue 104 | 67
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